Things I Learned When I Randomly Joined A Sorority

So one of the things I get questions about the most is being in a sorority so I figured I would write a three-part post about what it’s been like!

If you knew me in high school I bet you would have NEVER thought I would have gone to college and joined a sorority. That just didn’t seem like the type of org I would want to join. When I got to college and recruitment rolled around I started thinking about trying it. I went to an info session and was told about all of the amazing benefits like, internship opportunities, philanthropy and sisterhood (they love talking about sisterhood).

I knew a lot of people rushing and so I figured I would rush and if I didn’t end up liking any of them I would just drop out and go back to whatever I was doing beforehand.

Recruitment was a blur but I can talk about that more if someone cares but essentially you get aggressively shuffled from room to room and girls clap in your face until you give up and join in.

Bid day was also a blur but here are some photos I took with girls that were complete strangers to me at the time!

Fast forward to my first few months in my sorority. Honestly they were really tough. I didn’t know a single person and I didn’t know that it was up to me to convince these girls to like me/be my friend, I kind of thought it was built into the automatic sisterhood aspect. I think it took me like a solid 4-5 months for me to actually think any of them were my acquaintances/friends and for them to know my first and last name. I wish someone would have told me before hand that I needed to put more effort into the sorority to get something out of it.

There was also a group of girls who emerged as the really cool girls, which sounds like something out of a coming of age novel but I swear this really happens. So that was odd because I felt like I should be friends with them but at the same time we had nothing really in common. They were also the only people I would see at events because they went to EVERYTHING. Whereas I, and the people who later became my friends, would only go to events once or twice a week, so it took us a while to find each other.

So the next thing anyone in Greek life talks about is their family. It’s actually a funny story (now), I got my big and she was the best (she still is) and she ended up disaffiliating after my first semester (between school, work and being pre-med, disaffiliating happens A LOT). So what happens occasionally is that you can get adopted into a new family and so I got a new big (seems like things are going uphill right?)

This is where it gets really humorous, about two weeks after she adopted me into her fam she disaffiliated too! So now i’m like a double orphan,  So I called my mom and we could not stop laughing about how I am cursed, and that whoever has me as their little disaffiliates immediately.

Both of my bigs are amazing people, we stay in contact and are still friends and I get that sometimes sorority life is too hectic or not a good fit for some people.

So now my big is essentially this girl Taylor (same name very confusing) and I have a little, Lauren and everything is great. I guess I would just like to put it out there that some people have these amazing perfect lineages and that’s cool but you may also end up like me and have like 24 different bigs, a previously estranged grand-big you kind of didn’t know, later found out was really cool but then graduated weeks after you found this out.

Honestly whatever works.

So 3 things I learned my first semester in a sorority:

1.) You really have to put some work in if you want these people to ACTUALLY feel like sisters

2.) You don’t have to go to everything but should probably go to somethings

3.) They aren’t actual twins lol

And if you aren’t in a sorority this probably sounded insane and that’s because it is.