Everything I learned from rushing Delta Sigma Pi

One highly successful social experiment I found myself in recently was recruitment for a business fraternity. For those that are unfamiliar, business fraternities are communities of students who are all business majors, typically highly driven, and looking for a group to help push them while attending university. Business fraternities also offer a great platform for students looking to excel outside of university through offering workshops to teach their brothers about networking, interviewing opportunities, and employment options, not to mention the many great connections gained from the alumni community within many business frats.

College feels like a large social experiment at times. Students such as myself are put into situations that are detached from reality and taught theories on how we should approach life and our professional careers. Aside from the absurdity of this notion, that what we do in college in similar to the Truman Show, we can all agree that this is a unique phenomenon. I like to view it as a safe place to play and to test my own theories. Sometimes I fail, sometimes my theories yield less than desirable results, and sometimes I find some wonderful tokens of information and societal truths.

All this considered, I thought rushing for a business fraternity was a great idea! My friend Alli and I both decided to rush Delta Sigma Pi, a rushing processing that involves business casual attire for four days, two hours a day, while being ask any and every question about yourself, your morals, and your life. To some people this sounds like a living hell, but for me, this was a dream come true. I have always loved to be challenged, and to question the world around me. To spend four days in a perfectly tailored pants suit while discussing the philosophical differences between Camus’s and Satre’s existentialism was one of the highlights of my college career thus far.

There was one catch – I am not a business major. I have the intention of becoming a business major, but for USC, one must first take business calculous and then apply to be in the business school, a feat I am undergoing. I will not be a declared business major until the Spring. Therefore, I was ineligible to actually be recruited during rush, but my dear friend Alli is in the business school. We both agreed that Delta Sigma Pi would be a great opportunity for her, and I wished to support her through the process. So, I decided to rush anyways, with full knowledge that I was unable to become a pledge. This is where the fun began.

With absolutely no pressure to conform to any expectations, I was free to say and speak about whatever I felt like. I have previously had a large amount of experience mingling in business-like settings, so I felt very comfortable with the concept of networking and schmoozing.  Now it was time to take it from a task and turn it into something fun. This all came from me speaking my mind and being myself. The freedom I felt from this was amazing, and lead to some amazing conversations as well. I was not focused on myself or how others were perceiving me, but rather what that person was actually saying. I did not listen to their responses just to wait my turn to reply, but I truly thought about what they said. My goal was not based on myself, because I had no agenda. All I truly wished to do was to get to know those around me, to hear their stories, and to share interests.

Unfortunately, Alli had a much different experience. She, and many other recruits, felt a pressure to conform to an ideal that they believed DSP brothers were looking for. Each day, the recruitment process drained her.  I could feel a part of her fire and her light dimming by the last day. This came from Alli feeling like she had to suppress who she was to become what she thought DSP wished to see. And while she is not wrong in this assumption, I have always believed that there is a better way to go about this – and my experience at DSP reaffirmed this theory for myself.

In these four years, we can test the many versions of ourselves and see which side would mesh the best in different settings. The Sydney Callaway that loves to stay at home, cooking, and reading books is not the same person that goes out drinking with her friends. I exhibit different behaviors, I speak about different topics, and I listen to different music based on the company around me. However, I am not denying my true self. My personal preferences are not what is accepted or expected by the demographic I am surrounded by. These personalities are equally me, just in a different environment, and all are familiar and true to myself, so I never feel out of place.

In this recruitment process, I allowed myself to be 100 percent genuine and honest. I spoke about what truly bothered me about myself, what my passions were, what my flaws are. I communicated what was important to me despite the fact that people may not understand me, but I knew they were willing to listen. In fact, they were forced to listen, so it was almost my obligation to entertain them. What I loved about DSP recruitment was not that I felt understood in a room full of strangers, but that I was able to share things that are important to me with these strangers. This is how friendships and true bonds are formed, when we cut out the smoke screens and allow others into our minds and hearts.

While we all derive some form of joy from silly nights out, catchy pop songs, and pointless gossip, it is evident these things lack importance or relevance to the true people we are. We must nurture any and all versions of ourselves, and figure out who fits where. In that sense, there will always be a form of ourselves that is fed through different environments – this is what creates a dynamic and flexible individual. This is the person that can travel all over the world, adapting to different cultures and environments and having an amazing time in the process.