Recently, I participated in Spirit Week for my sorority, also known as Work Week in some sororities. This is the week before school and recruitment starts when sorority girls move in early to practice recruitment and get ready for recruitment together. It is a week of bonding, laughter, work and fun. You get to know your sisters better and prepare for a fantastic class of incoming freshmen and potential new members!

As a junior pledge class member, I have been through recruitment one time before this as an active member, so I was able to fully appreciate the week without being too nervous and build on what I already know. We practiced songs, bumping, conversation, our preference ceremony, and more! Spirit Week is intensive, but it's so worth it to be prepared to welcome new ladies to the world of sorority life and very rewarding to help them find a home.

However, as those of us who have experienced it know, Spirit Week is no walk in the park. It can be exhausting at times to concentrate so hard on something for sometimes longer than the average school or work day. During Spirit Week, you are constantly learning new things every day. You are picking up skills that you may not otherwise ever have formal practice in, such as conversation and crafting and transitions. Being in a sorority is a fantastic learning experience, and Spirit Week is one of the most content-rich learning times of the year.

During this week, I had my fair share of fatigue, but with your amazing sisters and a wonderful recruitment chair, it is much easier to keep your spirits up. We had themed spirit week days, so this year we had days of Greek goddess, beach day #withmyseastars, #WildAboutKD, #tbt, and letters day. It was really fun to see what people came wearing and to win a prize if you wore the best costume that day.

It is a pleasure to get to spend this dedicated time with sisters. My sorority and the women in it mean a lot to me. During this spirit week we are able to reconnect and get back to the roots and values of our ritual and what brings us together as a family. Preparing to share a glimpse of that with potential new members who may join our ranks gives us a special unity and common purpose. It is really exciting to get ready to meet and offer bids to women that have the same values as yourself. Being able to make life-long friendships of women from so many different backgrounds, interests, and identities, yet all admire the same qualities and inherent personal values is one of the privileges afforded to being a member of a sorority. These reminders of all the possibilities gives new passion to us for recruitment the next week.