I’ve decided to write an article on something I’m sure will reach a large number of people reading this (I should say girls). As Spring semester begins, so does the beginning of a new recruitment for those involved in Greek life. Recruitment is viewed as a bit intimidating and tiring -- I could disagree with both -- but what we should remind ourselves as members of an organization is that this is an exciting time for any chapter. It’s essentially the annual rebirth and revival of the given chapter, just as any team or organization recruits and selects new members yearly. Only we’re not getting up at 6 A.M. to run sprints; it’s a bit more fun than that. But regardless of anyone’s opinion, there’s one thing we can all agree on: freshmen are most likely terrified or nervous at the least right now. Your first time at anything is trial and error, especially your first time meeting over 200 girls in a single night. But the point of this condensed system is to help you find people more like yourself, people you connect with, you’re looking for the place where three quarters of the people you talk to get it. So the number one rule: be yourself.

Be yourself, because everybody else is taken. Just kidding, that’s horrible, I would never actually write that. Yet I do, because it actually brings a lot of meaning and value to the advice I want to give my young gals here. Be yourself, because the person you’re talking to is going to talk to 20 more people that night. Be yourself, because if you trust in yourself and are comfortable with yourself, the people you’re supposed to be with will mirror that. A lot of sororities get flack and attention for the assimilation of identical images, from the clothing to the hair color we all have. What shoes are you going to wear? What wash jeans? These were the only freedoms and non-restrictions we had in our appearance, as we all wore the same standard white T-shirt. Wear what you would normally wear, be the truest form of yourself. You’re just meeting people, and people, well they should not be that intimidating to begin with. They’re just people.

Recruitment can be a long process that some dread; I can actually say I don’t. Although it’s conceived many ways, recruitment is just a directional process where you meet a sh*t ton of people. The girl who I talked to for what seemed like five minutes, but was really 20, but whose sorority I didn’t end up joining, sat next to me in one of my classes the following week. The connection we shared with each other didn’t dissipate because we didn’t join the same organizations, we had a connection already. We were two young women at a public university -- we had things to talk about. We forget that the people behind the “member” status and the Greek letters are merely just people, representing a bigger notion of their choice. We’re all just people, you can obsess over the name tag you create, the shoes you wear, but truly, at the end of the day, nobody notices as much as yourself. What we notice is the genuine tone of your voice and the ability to let yourself show through. You could wear the most recognizably expensive pair of shoes, but if your personality seems sour or entitled, what does it matter?

Just a small script of my thoughts on recruitment. In the end, it’s truly not a big deal. It’s supposed to be a fun and exciting thing, don’t expect anything and fall into place where you should. It works best for those who let this happen to them. Good luck to all the freshmen, sophomores and juniors going through this right now, or preparing to. Let the revival begin!