I smell Rush Week 2011...

I'm noticing a lot of sorority love on Fb... Could it be? Is rush week 2011 really here? Oh boy, how exciting! What a week this is. A week full of new friendships, old friendships shattered, summer eating disorders finally paying off, just insecurities galore! A week when dreams are made, and nightmares are realized. For those GDIs who don't know what I'm talking about, well good, we like to keep it that way. I'll just say think of every stereotypical sorority/frat movie or rumor you've ever heard or seen and then multiply it. Because they're all true. The fat circling, the sister bonding, the frat hazing, the rabbit blood, it all happens this week. I can't say enough about what a glorious week this is. It's a week for sisterly love not only for the lucky new members, but also for the veteran members finally able to reunite after a long summer. We dance and sing in our sorority living room dressed in our frilly pjs into the late hours of the night preparing for the new girls to come through. We comb each other's hair and paint each other's nails, encourage one another to do just one more sit-up, one more push up. We have to be at our best this week. But how could we not be? "I was at my best, when I was with these people." And I was at my worst a lot too, and at my sloppiest, and bitchiest, and rudest, and a long list of other shit. This can be one long ass week locked in a house not meant for 80 girls. Tension can get very high at times. Some girls just can't handle the pressure of it all. The pressure of recruiting the best possible new members of the house. Luckily, I never had to actually deal with this pressure right on as I wasn't usually allowed to "talk" to many of the new girls coming through. I don't know why, I guess my House never trusted me or what I might say wrong. They all seemed to think I was a little too "straight forward" or something, might scare the girls away so they insisted I play the Helen Keller card and keep to myself. It was a hard time for me. But that's how rush can be, ruthless. It's a time for the Sally Sunshines of the house to really shine, they're the MVPs of the week. I can still think of the MVPs I so admired, wished I could be a little more like. But I was never a Sally Sunshine as hard as I tried, I was always a Sarcastic Susan. So to all the Susans this week who aren't allowed to interact with the new girls, who are locked in the closet with Marge and Sasha, don't let Sandy or anyone else get you down. Keep your eye on the prize. And that prize is Thursday night.



The best night in all of college is the Thursday night after rush lets out. Sorority girls and frat boys alike party like they haven't seen each other in almost five days. Oh, what a night this is. Girls hug and scream and chant their annoying cheers because after five hard days or recruitment work everyone is just boiling over with their sorority love. And the frat boys hug and scream because the new slutty sorority girls are finally let out on the loose. It's a great night for all. Unless of course you're one of those new girls who didn't get a house, or if you're a house who got all the sloppy seconds. But even those things don't stop a girl from partying, life goes on. It's nothing that a shot or two can't cure.



Yes, this sure is a great/awful week. A time when different paths join as one. From different worlds we have come. Would I relive it again if given chance? My mind says no, because God knows I hated this week. But my heart, my tiny little Theta heart, says yes. Maybe just a day of it. Because two years later, my sisters and I, our roads have parted, we said we all couldn't imagine it, but it's happened. We don't get to see each other often, so a night locked in at 1545 S Street with all of them doesn't sound that bad right now. So to all the bitchy folk who like to boast about sorority girls buying their friends I can't help but respond, hells yeah I bought my friends, and it was a damn good purchase too. They shouldn't be bitter, they would have done it too if their parents had money. Deal with it. We're sisters of love, friends of money. Jk. But....



LYLAS



Betty L. Hamilton