Recruitment was very different for me. I came to UK after spending two years at the University of South Carolina. My sophomore year, I participated in formal recruitment down there. I received a bid from a sorority I wasn't in love with, but one that had a "good reputation" and the one in which my older sister was currently an active member. I ended up dropping during the new member period, and had made the decision to transfer back home to Lexington and start UK in the fall of 2014, at the beginning of my junior year.
I knew a couple different girls from high school who were involved in different chapters at UK, and they were the ones who encouraged me to go through formal recruitment as a junior. When I started the process, I felt old and out of place. I'd done this before, I'd been in college for two years already, and I didn't have any preconceived notions about which chapter I wanted to join. Going through at 20 years old is a LOT different than going through during your first couple days at college.
My Gamma Chi was my age, though, and she was incredible. She reassured me that no matter what people say when they're standing in line at different houses, the view from the inside of a chapter is totally different. So with a completely open mind, I stepped through the doors of Alpha Omicron Pi during the second round of recruitment, and I couldn't imagine being anywhere else.
I felt immediately at home. The woman who I spoke to was loud and energetic, and told me to take off my shoes and put my feet on the couch. A year and a half later, I can't tell you what we talked about - but I can say with absolute confidence that after that day, I didn't want to go to any more houses.
But here is where my perfect story takes a turn for the worst. On the last day of recruitment, as we were handed our lists for preference round, my Gamma Chi held mine for last and asked me to step to the side with her to talk. I immediately thought that she was simply going to console me for having only AOII left. But then she took my hand, looked me in the eye, and said, "don't cry, okay?"
I couldn't help it. Tears started falling. I felt like such an idiot. How could I think I'd get the house I wanted? It was too perfect, and life is never that perfect, so of course it wouldn't happen. And there I was, in the Whitehall Classroom Building, 20 years old, crying on the last day of recruitment.
I wasn't going to quit. I wanted AOII, and I didn't understand why I wasn't at the house right now, but I understood enough about recruitment to realize that mistakes happen, and there are thousands of girls trying to find their sisters at the same time - it's only natural that mistakes would be made, and women would get hurt.
I dried my tears and reluctantly made the seemingly endless walk to my one and only preference house. The whole time I was at the ceremony, all I could think was how disconnected I felt from these women. I didn't feel like I belonged here, and I can honestly say that I think most of the women could feel that, too. By the end of the hour, I had made my mind up and I knew what I had to do.
I went straight to the withdrawal room, and I withdrew myself from formal recruitment, just minutes after it was over. With a heavy heart, I said a quick prayer and asked God if I was doing the right thing. A strange peace settled over me, and I felt confident in my decision.
This process allows you to write down houses you liked during recruitment for the chance to receive a snap bid from the chapter. A snap bid is a bid extended to a woman after the recruitment process is over, but before bid day occurs. My Gamma Chi gave me the best explanation for a snap bid - she said, "You can't think of a snap bid as an afterthought, because it's basically the opposite of that. No random woman gets a snap bid. A snap bid gets offered after a girl is released from recruitment, and people in the chapter are like, 'oh sh**, I loved her, why isn't she back here now?!' You won't get a snap bid unless women in that chapter are fighting to have you on their front lawn on bid day."
So that's what I did. And it was painful and I felt like bid day was an eternity away. I spent the night with two of the girls who were in my Gamma Chi group (who just so happen to be two of my very best friends to this day), and we stayed up almost all night long awaiting the call from my Gamma Chi to let me know whether or not to show up to bid day.
At 6:28am, I got the text that changed my life. She said, "See you in a few hours :)" and I started crying with joy. Fast forward to the moment I walked on the AOII front lawn, and my soulmate greeted me with loving, open arms. This woman became my big, and the rest of my story is truly a fairy tale come true.
-Elizabeth Baker
Comments