Spring recruitment is just about here and some of you lucky betches might find yourselves in the coveted position of recruitment counselor. Okay, so you’ll have to tuck away your favorite matching big-little letters for a few months and stay away from community service events (darn!) to maintain anonymity, but for those of you who are worried, I’ll let you in on a piece of information: being a recruitment counselor is AWESOME. For you, two-a-day recruitment practices no longer exist. There will be no singing, no clapping, no excessively cracked-out smiling and jumping, and you’ll spend drastically less money on Aspirin (or more likely, Xanax) in order to drown out the voice of your psycho-bitch recruitment counselor. There will be no more getting dolled up in black skinnies, heels, and the perfect subtle-smokey eye at the crack of dawn on the weekends. You can show up to meet your girls in sweats if you want to (but don’t forget, you should still look kind of pretty. They are eventually going to find out what chapter you’re in). In short, the PNMs know they are going to spend most of recruitment being harshly judged by impossibly pretty girls who are twitching from the three redbulls they just chugged. It’s intimidating, and if you are their recruitment counselor they want to know the real you. So show them!
As a recruitment counselor, or “Rho Chi,” you’ll have to deal with a waterfall of emotions. Screaming, crying, nervous breakdowns, you’ll see it all. Sometimes you’ll have to give one girl great news right before you break another’s heart (but you’re used to breaking hearts, aren’t ya?) and it’s all in a days work. You’ll have a wide variety of girls in your group…the leggy hot blonde, the sweet, bubbly beauty that literally every chapter is fighting over, the homely girl who still ends up in a top-tier because of her personality (or a relative), the fugly chubsters, the duds with no personality, and the ones who show up drunk. The funny thing is, every single one of them believes with their whole heart and soul that they belong in a top tier and it’s a train wreck when reality hits them. It’s great practice for well, real life, since you have to be sweet and keep a smile on your face even if you want to smack them sometimes when they won’t listen to you. They won’t sometimes. And some WILL drop out of rush no matter how much you beg them to stay. Not to mention the almost-constant texts and calls from them panicking about what to wear or crying because they woke up late and are about to miss a round. Always keep bobby pins, a sewing kit, and breath mints on hand and a full tank of gas in your car should you need to shuttle them around, run to the store, or do an emergency walk-of-shame pickup. It happens.
Since the girls are forbidden to talk about booze and boys inside the houses, they are basically left with…wait, what ARE they left with? Stories about community service? How hard they studied in high school? I don’t even know. So when you have your one-on-ones, it’s pretty awesome to give them a glimpse of your real life. Talk about your boyfriend, the sociopathic nature of sex-addicted frat boys, and how your sisters got you through a devastating breakup with their love, support, and a shit ton of Franzia. Share some tidbits of scandalous mixer stories and advice for themed mixer outfits. These girls need to know exactly what they are getting into, and it will help them feel close to you and trust your opinion when it comes time for a tough decision. By the time recruitment is over you’ll be surprised how much they actually look up to you. It’s an amazing feeling.
By far the BEST part of recruitment is giving out the bids, and Rho-Chi reveal. By now you know which girls in your group are your actual sisters and you can’t friggin wait to introduce them to everyone. You get to see the look on everyone’s faces when they open their bids to the sorority they loved with squeals of joy and pray that no ones face drops when they see a name they are not so ecstatic about. Best of all, you get to be reunited with your sisters! You’ve spent the last few weeks awkwardly not speaking to them in front of the PNMs and spending hours every day hanging with girls from other chapters. You totally have Panhel love but you are soo ready to rejoin your sisters 24/7 and are probably going to wear letters 5 days a week from now until graduation because you’ve missed them so much. It’s bittersweet as you send your girls out into the arms of other chapters and give a big welcome to those who end up in yours. You’ll spend the rest of this semester watching them go through the pledging process, meet their big, and all the wonderful things that come with being a new member, some in real life and some through their facebook albums. In short, it’s one of the most rewarding experiences ever. So to those of you who are lucky enough to have this amazing experience, good luck! Nice Move Respond
