Oh, sorority Bid Day: the day you run home to hundreds of girls you don’t know yet but already love so much. After the three stressful and tear-filled days of recruitment, seeing the piece of paper asking you to join one of the great sisterhoods on your campus is the greatest feeling ever.

The once quiet room is now filled with hundreds of girls screaming, jumping and crying because they got a bid from the sorority they were working so hard to join. After 10 minutes of this, the girls that helped guide you to this new home gather you and your new sisters to get ready and run out to your other sisters. At the time, you don’t know many of these girls, but in a few months, you’ll create some pretty great relationships with your fellow new members.

You all are led out to the lawn where all the sororities have set up for hundreds of hugs, pictures, and throwing-up-what-you-knows. 3…2…1… Go! You all run into the arms of your Bid Day Buddy, where they all welcome home and give you all your Bid Day goodies. At first, it is all so overwhelming, and you have no idea who 99 percent of these girls are, yet there is a sense of home that washes over you.

What is so amazing about Bid Day is that you meet so many people, and at the time you don’t know, but you could have a really great relationship with these girls. You could meet your Big, your new best friend, your future roommate, even your future bridesmaids, and you’ll cherish these relationships for years to come. But you don’t know that yet. Right now you are just a scared girl in a sea of screaming sorority girls and you don’t know what to do with yourself.

Not only have just signed up to get hundreds of sisters who love you unconditionally, you also join a society that has been thriving for hundreds of years. Millions of girls have been in your shoes, and you all share this one thing: sisterhood. You may not know it now, but your new sorority is going to open up to you their sacred traditions and rituals just like that. You didn’t just join a sorority to be in it for your college years; you are a member for life and this all starts on the day you rip open that bid and see your new home.