Joining a sorority after you hated Greek Life

 

Last semester I informally rushed and experienced a terrible loss of self confidence and worth. However, in the end I discovered a strength in myself I did not realize existed. This newfound empowerment inspired me to go through the daunting event that is sorority formal recruitment.

December 2016:

There is a preliminary meeting for sorority rush, we met our Rho Gammas and found out more about the rush process in general. I freaked out and had a breakdown. “Why I am doing this again?” I asked myself; was I really self confident enough to let others judge me while still knowing my self-worth. I heard stories of women getting rejected from all 8 sororities on campus and knew I needed to go into the process okay if that was me.

January 2017:

Formal recruitment was about to kick off and after a month of debating whether or not to go through with rushing, I decided to take a leap of faith and jump into the unknown waters. I challenged myself to do something that scared me, and rushing a sorority was most definitely one of those things.

Rushing overwhelmed me. There were so many women. They would sing and chant, talk to me for hours, and wear heels in which I could never imagine being able to balance, let alone walk and squat. Eventually though rush was on its last day of four.

I had been called back to only one sorority. I thought this would negatively affect me and make me self-conscious as other women were being called back to six of the eight sororities at a time. My top callback number was three. However, I turned this into a positive. Three gave me more focus and guidance; I could concentrate on a few chapters rather than trying to balance them all back to back.

At the end of the last day of recruitment, I officially became a member of a greek chapter at Chapman, something of which I never imagined myself a part. Now it was a reality.

In my sorority I have found such a dose of confidence and boost of self-esteem which I never thought possible. In just a couple of weeks my friends and family began noticing changes in me. “You seem more positive” or “your smile looks bigger” they would say. These were the biggest compliments they could give me because I felt so much more upbeat and smiley since my bid.

Going from despising the idea of sororities, to be a proud member of a Greek organization, I can say I have come full circle. I urge you to give greek life a chance, even if you do not think it is for you, you never know!

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