Hi! My name is Annie, and I am a senior this year at Wichita State. It's been quite a journey, but I am currently an International Business major. This is my first year as a Rho Gamma and I am really pumped about spending my last recruitment as a collegiate helping you all find your letters that you can wear proudly like I do.
I graduated from Maize Senior High here in town and at the last minute decided to attend Wichita State that fall. I guess I thought it would be easy to make friends at WSU because I went to school in Wichita and already knew a lot of people. Well, I thought wrong, because college freaked me out. My roommate from freshman year still to this day makes fun of how I was scared to go and eat in the cafeteria (which just led to my attachment to my Hello Kitty grilled cheese maker). I had a difficult time adjusting because my best friend from high school went to KU and I missed her like crazy. I would Skype her, and she would tell me all about recruitment, the chapter she joined, and her new best friend she was living with. I did really try not to feel sad and thought maybe I had made the wrong school decision. I kind of thought that formal recruitment, at least the way she had described it, sounded really annoying and exhausting and not fun at all. And yet, somehow, another girl from my high school who was going through Wichita State's recruitment convinced me to join her in this adventure. This woman is a very convincing person.
I agreed to go along with it at the last minute, but I figured I wouldn't join any of the chapters or would drop out quickly after Bid Day because it wasn't "my thing." I have always been a very conservative person and the stereotypical sorority image is something I was not attracted to. Because, let's be real, I don't enjoy going to parties and chatting with boys and talking about dumb things in an annoying voice, which I was almost sure what all sorority girls did 24/7. I went, but I went begrudgingly.
This is now when I would like to give a shout out to my own Rho Gamma from three years ago, because bless her heart, she answered every question I had, and I had a lot. I don't know why I thought I couldn't wear a red dress on Pref Night, but I was pretty stressed out about it at the time.
I went through recruitment and worriedly asked many questions at every house about their values and if they would line up with mine. As we got farther into recruitment, I begin to feel like maybe I would actually fit in with these sorority girls.
And I went Greek. And it blew my mind. So I stuck around. I was amazed how awesome all of these women could be, because they broke every stereotype I had. Greek women are so committed to excelling in school, passionate about their philanthropies, and being a community. Being Greek has brought a lot of challenges my way, but I like that because it pushes me out of my comfort zone. I can be as quirky as I want to be and I love it! It has been so beneficial having both collegians and alumnae help me navigate through my many decisions in college. My favorite thing though has been my family's involvement in the Greek community. It was all foreign to them at first, but I love how me being Greek excites them now.
And of course, I will end with a Harry Potter quote. Because I watched this exact movie yesterday. But the quote is absolutely perfect. In the wise words of Dumbledore, "It is not our abilities that show what we truly are. It is our choices."
Annie
