I signed up for Formal Recruitment the summer before my Freshman year began at WSU, knowing from the very beginning that I wanted to find a home within the Greek system. As a double legacy (a legacy is a women who’s sister, mother, grandmother, etc... had been members of a sorority chapter), I had hoped my whole life to share the same bonds my mother and grandmother had developed in their collegiate years. But when the first day of Formal Recruitment came around, I was nervous beyond belief and thought for a split second that maybe I wasn’t cut out to join a chapter. Any reservation I had, however, vanished once I began conversing with the sorority women as WSU. I knew that I wanted to be one of them and gain a chapter full of sisters, something I never had, but always dreamed of as an only child. A few days later, I excitedly ripped open the envelope that held my bid card and the name of my new home.
However, the journey to finding my home was not as easy as I had anticipated. On Preference Night, the final night of Formal Recruitment, I found myself torn between two chapters. One that I had fallen in love with on House Tours night, the other, I fell head over heels for on Pref Night. I walked back to the Rhatigan Student Center full of emotions: scared that I might choose the wrong chapter, nervous that I wouldn’t receive my top chapter, ecstatic that I was so close to finding my new home, and so many other feelings that it’s difficult to remember.
Amidst my crisis of choosing my life long home, I did the only thing I could think to do. I spoke to my Rho Gamma. She was the calm in the storm for me. I presented my situation to her, asking for her guidance. She responded with a question of her own, one that has stuck with me ever since, “Where do you feel at home?” It’s a simple enough question, but one that forced me to search for an answer. The answer I found that night appeared on my bid card the next day and became my home.
As a Rho Gamma, I encourage all of the women going through Formal Recruitment to come to us with anything you’re feeling. We’ve been in your shoes before; nervous, excited, and every emotion in between. I want to help you find your home and sisters just as I found mine!
The experience of Formal Recruitment is unlike any other and I encourage every woman attending WSU to at least consider the possibility of joining a sorority. You might just be surprised at what you find!
~ Kaitie Foley