rush diaries

this weekend I participated in something I never, nor anybody with any remote knowledge of me, thought I would do. no I’m not making an ask alice reference; I’m making a sorority reference. that’s right, I rushed. at babson, greek life is very limited – we only have three sororities and four fraternities on campus. they’re all very low key, which is why I decided I would give sisterhood a shot. if I were at a school down south, I would stay far, far away (as in fairytale far, far away) during rush week.

the first event was on a wednesday: orientation. I was rubbed the wrong way. about seventy girls shoved in an auditorium being told that five days from now we would be running to our new home. no???

1. I wasn’t going to be running anywhere.
2. everything seemed so artificial to me. I prefer to make friends organically.
3. in every picture shown, girls were all dressed the same. pass. I thrive on originality.

but nevertheless, I threw out my judgments and pushed forward. on thursday, the first official night of rush, all of the girls split into three groups and went to each sorority’s party in casual attire. showing off my great enthusiasm for the entire process and wanting to put my best foot forward, I decided to show up fresh from the gym, unbathed, and sporting no make-up. the first one I visited was sigma kappa, then off to chi omega I trooped. exhausted after two hours of answering the most generic questions known to man (where are you from? why babson? what are you involved in?), I forced myself to travel to the last sorority, kappa kappa gamma. immediately the kkg girls started singing and snapping, so naturally I grimaced and then mentally escaped.

on friday we were required to dress in a date night outfit, and upon arriving I was only happy because I had gone shopping and bought my outfit earlier that day. we were surreptitiously handed a paper that let us know which sororities we were invited back to. I was invited back to sigma kappa and kappa kappa gamma, respectively. I got the vibe that sigma kappa was weird af. kappa kappa gamma surprised me; I might have slightly enjoyed it. although again by the end of the night I returned to my dorm room emotionally drained and starving.

on saturday afternoon we were instructed to arrive in formal attire where, again, we were notified of which sorority(ies) we were invited back to. you could be invited back to up to two. while I read that I was again invited back to sigma and kappa,  I strongly wondered what I was doing dressed in a black velvet deep-v romper at 12:30 in the afternoon. I went to kappa first and realized they wanted me. I was pulled aside by very important people in the sorority. at that point, I knew I was going to rank kappa first. sigma was weird after all. then I went to sigma. I was dreading it—1.5 hours of pointless conversation since I had already decided on kappa. well about 30 seconds of being in the sigma tower, I was pulled into a room with three sigma sisters. they changed my mind. they were cool. I realized sigma was the eccentric sorority at babson. it is composed of all different personalities and looks and most of the girls could care less about preconceived notions of sororities. they don’t care about what a sorority is supposed to mean.

when it came time to rank sororities, I put sigma first. and yes, I received my bid from them. It is very rare at babson that a girl does not get the sorority she ranks first.

when I WALKED, I did not run, to sigma on bid day, girls started shrieking when they saw me. they thought I had chosen kappa. I am very happy with my choice, I went with my gut which was always the advice of my father while growing up. I am still unsure though if this sisterhood is for me. I am definitely a free spirit. forced activities are normally what I shy away from. and the process brought out a lot of insecurity in me. I was one of the few girls not invited back to all three sororities after the first night. why? what set me apart from the girls that did get invited back to all three parties? Maybe I didn’t talk to the right people. maybe I should’ve showered? I guess I’ll never know.

o chelsea