Everything that happens when you join a sorority

Joining a sorority is not something I have always planned on doing, so I didn’t know what was coming my way when I found myself going through recruitment and signing a bid card.

To be honest, I expected half-hearted acceptance at best. I imagined a good few weeks of being shy and insecure were practically written into my calendar.

But what I could never have predicted was the outpour of love (and some definite weirdness) that was about to follow. Over the past few weeks, I have learned that as soon as you join a sorority…

Lots of girls suddenly love you

From Facebook wall posts to more coffee dates than there are meals in a day, the overwhelming amount of love and acceptance that accompanies the new member period far surpassed anything I could have imagined.

Is it a little weird logging into Facebook to see 30 new notifications, 15 of which are welcome-home-pictures of a shirtless Justin Bieber? Yes.

Is it one of the top ten best things that has ever happened to me? Also yes. 

You’re thrown into a room with people who are guaranteed to be a big part of your life

Bid night is a whirlwind of meeting new sisters and reuniting with faces you may recognize from around campus, but it’s nothing like any typical social situation I had ever been in before.

Usually when you meet someone new there is very little pressure: maybe you get along, maybe you don’t, maybe you never speak again.

Bid night kind of felt like when Piper Chapman first met all of her Litchfield jailmates in OITNB, only a little scarier, because these wonderful ladies will be with me for the next four years instead of just fifteen months.

So you worry about the possibility of messing up this opportunity to get off on the right foot

Am I too shy to be interesting? Am I too outgoing and overpowering? If I don’t make best friends this very second will they all group up without me and leave me completely on my own? Just a few terrifying questions that have been running through my head once every few hours. 

But despite the worry, you gain a sense of confidence you didn’t realize you had

But not in a stuck up, status-related way. Joining a group of people who saw something special in you and are actively trying to get to know you provides a feeling of comfort and confidence which you may not have realized you were capable of having. These people fought to keep all of us coming back throughout recruitment and have continued to make sure we realize our full potential as individuals.

If you knew people before, you overanalyze whether or not your friendship will render you incapable of making new friends

I can’t tell if loving the fact that we’re sisters this much is making it impossible for me to meet my other sisters but as of now this seems like the most exciting thing ever and I just want to spend the rest of my life doing sister-y things because I’m so excited and happy & lucky!?!? 

You’re astounded by the fact that all of your guy friends aren’t miserable, because this was supposed to be your time to shine after suffering through a long recruitment week

Their eventual suffering was the only thing getting me through those five days of small-talk and chilly toes while they were having the time of their lives eating free food and partying with brothers. But wait…why are they still smiling? This isn’t fair. 

You will realize how bad you really are with names

As exciting as it is to feel like a small local celebrity when the friend requests come rolling in, I feel twice as guilty when girls I run into greet me by name and I’m too overwhelmed to have theirs memorized. There are girls I absolutely love and still have trouble remembering their names. 

But also how creepy your sense of memory tends to be at moments when you don’t need it at all.

Why is it so easy to remember which sister has two poodles and a golden retriever but so hard to remember everyone’s major? My own mind continues to amaze and frighten me as well most of the people around me who are subjected to my selective memory.

You will accept hundreds of FB friend requests from your new sisters, and you may accidentally let a few extras slip through.

The number of girls in my pledge class who started receiving messages from guys they accidentally became friends with on Facebook in the rush to accept hundreds of friend requests was comical. 

Most of all, you realize that it was the right decision

Greek life is what you make of it, and the stereotypes surrounding sororities are often far from true – at least at Cornell. Obviously, there will be bumps in the road and times when being in a sorority is frustrating, but the support, friendship and fun I’ve experienced in the past week alone is enough to reassure me that despite anything I may have assumed about sororities in the past, joining was the right decision for me.