Memo #1 : Thoughts on Rush
This week marked the prelude to my first ever experience with college sorority life. Deciding to go through Recruitment was a difficult choice for me. My mother attended the University of Illinois at Champaign- Urbana. That school is known for its crazy greek life and my mother did not want any part of it. My father is from Lithuania and im not sure that their idea of sororities is the same. My uncle and cousin were a part of greek life at U of I and they liked it very much. I come from a family of mixed “greek” feelings. At first I did not want to rush at all and was ready to have nothing to do with that part of college. As the deadline approached I realized that having a negative outlook on something that I have never experienced is hardly the way to be, especially in college life- this is our time to be open to as much as we can. Also I was already involved with ski team and many of the girls said that even if I was not planning on joining a house the rush process was still worth going through.
Going through rush many of the girls that I talked to would say that joining a sorority was the best decision that they made and it really “ defined” their college experience. When I heard that I actually felt a little sorry for them. I mean having girlfriends you can trust and relate to is great but I don’t feel like you need greek letters to label a friendship. Going to an small all girls school could be compared to being in a sorority in a way so I knew that truth about living with girls and that it is not as perfect as many of the chapters made it seem. Women are emotional and that can lead to the best and worst memories. Also im very proud of my heritage and being a part of the Lithuanian youth organization has given me almost the same experience as a sorority. Every aspect they spoke about reminded me of ATEITIS ( the mentioned Lithuanian organization) Everything from community service to formals to going abroad.
These first couple days of rush involved a lot of repetitive conversations and it would become exhausting very quickly. Although there were some houses where I did not feel like talking as much I did not want to disrespect the women who had put in so much effort for the recruitment process so I tried to be as genuine and appreciative as possible at each house. I noticed that there were many girls in my group and possibly others that would spent all their time in between houses complaining about one thing or another. It seemed like that was the only thing people could find in common with each other.
As of now I am still not sure if I will be agreeing to join a sorority but I am still willing to finish the process and see if I can find a “perfect fit”.
KMSofija 