While I am often too prideful to recognize my shortcomings, I will be the first to admit that I have failed miserably at this whole blog thing. It has (I think) been almost two months since I have posted, and that is absurd. However, in my absence from this blog, my life has been a roller coaster. And not one of those roller coasters made for little kids that travels four feet off the ground. Think upside down, twists and turns, Batman the Ride at Six Flags kind of roller coaster. Yeah. BUT, all of that to say, it was absolutely the best summer of my life.
My ambition is to periodically post things about my summer in between posts from current happenings here at Mississippi State. However, y'all saw how awesome I was at keeping my original ambition of blogging regularly, so we'll see how this goes. Fingers crossed!
I'm going to start by writing about the event that consumed my life from August 1, 2011 to August 15, 2011. Chi Omega Recruitment 2011. Every sorority girl, Chi O or not, can vouch for me when I say that our exertion during these weeks is only understood by those that live it. My man-voice finally healed, but I know many girls that still have a raspy lounge-singer like tone to their words. My body still aches to sleep for days, but we all know that that is not possible seeing as how classes started two days ago :). Basic story is that rush is hard work, especially for the Recruitment Chairs of every sorority, and the dedicated girls that work under her. But, I am done complaining. Now on to sharing what the weeks entailed! Warning: this post is very cheese-filled. There's a surprise at the end if you make it there.
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| Party heads! |
My involvement with rush this year actually started way before August 1st. I was blessed with the opportunity to be a "Go Greek Day" (Water Party) party head. Mary Margaret, my co-party head, and I began planning in the Spring to make the day creative and fun. Our tasks were to build a T-shirt display, an involvement board, and an academic board that shows off what Chi Omega has to offer. With the help of other members in our chapter, we were able to pull it off! Just a few staple gun incidents and hot glue burns were had in the process :).
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| Our costumes for "Come Together"! |
Another part of my rush involvement that started in the Spring was practice for Theme Night! For those that do not know, Theme Night is the day of recruitment in which we get to show our personality and the diversity of our chapter through acting, singing, and dance performances. I'm not an experienced actor, and those that know me well know that I am NOT a singer, so dancing it was! I was very excited to find out that I would get to participate in Theme Night again this year. We had a practice in the Spring, and then came back a few days before the rest of the chapter to finish preparing. Our first performance in front of people was on August 7th for our Parent Preview, and it was a blast. On the actual day of rush, we got to perform seven times! That day went by the fastest for me.
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| Oh, just chillin on the balcony. |
For the other days, I prepared along with the rest of the chapter like normal. All of Chi Omega had entire-day workshop from August 4-August 10. Go Greek Day was the 11th, Philanthropy Day was on the 12th, then Theme Night, Preference Night was the 14th, then BID DAY on August 15th!! For the most part, we were at the house the entire day, with certain people staying after to set up for the next day. Being a natural people-person, I did a LOT of talking over the week. I'll admit, it was pretty tiring by the end of the day, but I enjoyed getting to meet so many people. It is especially fun to get to see girls that you connected with during the week at the Chi Omega house on Bid Day :)
For a sorority girl, Bid Day is like Christmas. All of the work that was done over the past year finally pays off. For some, their life-long best friends are now their sisters. For others, girls that they fell in love with over the week are now their sisters. It a family fest, and one that can not be matched. For a fraternity boy, Girls Bid Day is an excuse to park your truck alongside the road, fire up the grill, crack open a can of Natty Light (or a Coke if you're my kind of guy), and yell at the parade of excited girls walking/running to their new houses. Since Chi Omega's Bid Day theme this year was NFL, there were plenty of fellows there to check out our cute new hooties. Or maybe it was my rapping of the Chi Omega version of the song "Black and Yellow" (Red and Yellow...ha...get it?) that attracted them to our house. Sure, we'll go with that one. Here's more pics from Bid Day:
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| My sweet Bid Day buddy that I got to know that week! |
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| Jennifer an me with our Jackson girls!! |
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| Bid Day was our exact two year friendiversary. Get it? |
Call me weird, but I LOVE rush. I really really do. It might not look like it when I'm about to talk to my 28th girl of the day about all that Chi Omega's are involved in, but there are other aspects of rush that make me love it. For instance, each year I seem to get to know someone in our chapter better. Not necessarily someone that I didn't know, but someone that I didn't know well. Whether it is an unexpectedly deep conversation over dinner after Theme Night performances are done, or a new-found similarity with a pledge sister during conversation exercises, someone always surprises me. And I love every realization that happens.
Another reason that I love rush is that it makes me so proud of my sorority. I never get tired of telling people that we have the most members involved in campus organizations, that Miss Mississippi 2010 was from our chapter, and that Chi Omega at Mississippi State has had the highest GPA on the row for TWENTY YEARS!! Ok, now I'm just bragging...but see what I mean? :) Rush also not only makes me very thankful that I got in Chi O, but wonder how I ever got in Chi O. It's a beautiful thing.
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| Pref Night fancy-ness. |
But, by far the biggest reason I love rush is that it brings our chapter together. While Anne Barry was the best Recruitment Chair in the world, she couldn't do it alone. It took a team of girls working together to perfect each dance, talk to each girl, tie each bow, pin each T-shirt, time each party, hang each backdrop, and scream their heads off when our doors open to the potential members waiting outside. A telltale sign of the quality of an organization is the emotion evoked when thoughts of it ending come to mind. During actual rush week, the first tears were shed after the final performance of Theme Night. For some seniors, this was their last time to ever dance for Chi Omega. Y'all know me, when I see people cry, I cry. So I couldn't stop the tears from escaping as I hugged senior Jenni Lynn after the final finale that night. However, nothing can compare to the tears had during the final Preference Party. Pref is already an emotional occurrence, so combined with crying seniors, and the potential member sitting in front of me balling because she felt at home, I lost it.
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| Chi Omega Phi Delta Chapter Class of 2009. Best pledge class ever. Juniors. I can't believe this is us. |
Rush week is draining. Physically, emotionally, and psychologically. However, it is the love for Chi Omega that fuels our bodies and keeps us moving until Bid Day. Sweet Bid Day. When describing why I love Chi O, my mind always goes back to this quote from Pref Night:
"Chi Omega friendship is worth more than gold, it's not had for the asking, no place is it sold. You can't find it by looking in a book on a shelf, you just have to be a Chi Omega yourself." :)
Ok I promised, here's the prize for making it to the end! Special thanks to my friends at Union University:
Told you it was awesome.
