Being on the other side of recruitment this year made me fall so much more in love with my sorority. I got to be apart of the process of helping girls find their homes in college. I never thought about how rewarding it would all actually be until Bid Day came around when I saw girls I met running home to Chi Omega, knowing that I somehow shaped their decision to come back each round.

Growing up, I knew I wanted to go Greek because I wasn’t going to school that close to home and I wanted to have a group of friends right off the bat. When I got to Kent State, the first few weeks seemed to drag on until recruitment started. I spent time planning my outfits during the weeks prior to recruitment so I wouldn’t have to worry about it the day of.

When recruitment finally started, I was a ball of nerves meeting the first group of girls and honestly, who isn’t? It’s the first round and you have no clue what to expect. The first three days of philanthropy rounds were a whirlwind of girls and smalltalk. Looking back, I don’t even remember what girls I talked to when I met Chi Omega. All I remember is talking about Leonardo DiCaprio with one of them which was one of the reasons they were pretty high on my list.

Throughout recruitment, Chi Omega wasn’t my number one choice. Tri Sigma had won my heart during the Sorority Carnival and Blastoff, and until Preference Round they were who I wanted to join. But after Preference, I sat down with my SRC crying over who to pick and she asked me which letters I would be proud to wear around campus. I immediately said Chi Omega. So I put them down first and got my Bid from them the next day.

Going through recruitment made me love Chi Omega because of how natural and genuine all the girls were. I felt comfortable enough to open up to them and tell them about things in my past and my family and all sorts of other topics I normally wouldn’t talk about. Most of it was probably word babble because I was so excited and nervous to come back to their house each day. I’ve met so many amazing women that I can proudly say are my sisters. Without Chi Omega, I wouldn’t have met my amazing Big who is such a huge support system to me, and I don’t even think she realizes it. I’ve met a lot of great friends and I have gotten to strengthen and create new friendships by being on the other side of recruitment. And next semester I get to travel to Florence, Italy with some of them.

Without Chi Omega my college experience would be completely different. I highly encourage anyone even slightly considering about joining a sorority to go ahead and do it because you’ll meet amazing people in and out of your sorority.