Being in a  

sorority

  were the best years of my life. Joining a sorority was the thing to do. I wanted to do it. I knew from the many American college movies and television shows that all All-American girls were sorority girls or at least wanted to be. I wanted to be one.

You see, I was only half American, born and raised in England. I had moved over to America to go to college, so I wanted to do it properly and have the real American college experience. So I did in 2006, my sophomore year of college, after I bought the college sweatshirt, wore jeans and flip flops to class, and attended as many home basketball and football games as possible.

When the 15 of us new sisters walked over from the college campus center towards our new sorority house, I could clearly hear the words "How I love those Alpha Gams, so deep deep, so down down, my heart." My new sisters, who had yet to find out who we new girls were, were singing, cheering, and drawing us towards them, the house, and our new lives as sisters. It was on a cold, dark, April night that I crossed the front lawn, arm in arm with my 14 new pledge sisters, of our new sorority house.

At first sight, I saw a small, two-storied, yet welcoming, brick house. During recruitment week, I had spent a number of hours in the living room of the house, speaking to as many sisters as the recruitment parties would allow. I did not get to see the rest of the house during those hours, but could not wait to have a tour and a snoop of the place as soon as I stepped over the threshold that night. The front door was wide open and music blared from the hall way. When the 30 or so sisters ran from the front steps across the lawn to meet us new girls (or babies as we quickly came to be called), I knew then when sister after sister, adorned in the Greek sorority letters, hugged me, that I was in the right place. I had made the right decision and had chosen the right sorority for me when I signed my bid card the night before. I felt comfortable. I felt at home.

I had eight weeks from that first night, when I crossed over the lawn, before I would be an initiated, full fledged sister of Alpha Gamma Delta (AGD). Alpha Gamma Delta is the sorority of pearls and squirrels, and an eclectic mix of girls. The sorority colors are red, buff, and green. The sorority was founded in a dorm room at Syracuse University in upstate New York when two maternal sisters were discussing college friendships and the need for a new women's fraternity on the campus. Alpha Gamma Delta was not the first all women's fraternity founded. The first sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma, then referred to as a fraternity, was founded in October of 1870 whereas Alpha Gamma Delta was founded in 1904 with an initial 11 members. Like the original sororities, AGD is known as and called a fraternity because at the time of its founding, the word "sorority" was not used.

Alpha Gamma Delta was founded as a sorority for those girls on the Syracuse campus who were not involved in or did not fit in to the other couple of female fraternities at the school. This is how Alpha Gam has remained. A sorority for all types of girls, an open minded, and friendly group of girls who want to have and form close and lifelong friendships with girls who share the same values and rituals of the fraternity. This is why the eight week pledging period is so important to Alpha Gam and all other sororities.

Without eight weeks of pledging, the sisters of their respective sororities would not be as close as they could be because pledging is a period of sister building and fun. A chapter is always very pleased and excited to have all of its new members. Some sisters hit it off better with some new members more than others and vice versa. It is with the sisters, who a new member bonds with first, who usually end up being their closest and long time friends. It is true what is said about sorority life, life long friends are found within a sorority.

Are the new members adored? Yes, of course they are. They are vital to the continuation of the chapter. Without them, chapter funds would be low and the chapter would die out. It can cost anywhere between $500 and $1200 the first semester when you join a sorority. This price varies from campus to campus, but the larger the campus, the higher the dues. This is to discourage too many girls from going through recruitment. However, the dues decrease over time, and again depending on the campus, can range from $200 to $500 per semester. It is a lot of money, and there are many who cannot afford the financial obligation, but the money does go towards chapter expenses and sisterhood activities, and in my eyes is well worth it. The cheaper the dues, the more likely it is that you will have to pay out of pocket for events like semi-formal and formal and to buy the numerous t-shirts that come with every activity.

It varies from year to year on how many girls go through recruitment. The number of girls in the fall are substantially lower than in the spring. This mostly depends on whether the girls have the grades to go through recruitment and how much interest there is in joining a sorority in that particular year. Of course, not all girls who go through recruitment are offered a bid. Usually, though, this number is relatively low, reaching only about five or six. A potential new member may not get a bid because all chapters do not give out bids to all potential new members who enter their house. This is impossible. It is not possible for an entire chapter to click with every potential new member. If that were the case, there would be no unity in the chapter and personalities would clash. A particular chapter attracts a particular type of person. However, there are always exceptions to the rules and not every sorority is stereotypical. I have seen girls cry, beg, and plead sisters of the sorority they were denied a bid to. Girls do take their rejection from a sorority personally, but it is better not to receive a bid, than to receive one and then not fit in with the sisters.

There are girls who go through recruitment multiple times before they realize that Greek life is just not for them and that they just do not fit into the chapters that are at the college. Some girls are unconcerned that they did not get a bid because that particular chapter is not where they wanted to go. Some girls even may not accept a bid to a particular house. Often, they have a bid to another house or the time that they were offered the bid is not a good time for them to accept it and to pledge. How heartbroken a girl is over not getting a bid really depends on her interest in that particular sorority.
Sorority life is to somewhat how it is perceived. Sisters have movie nights, cry over boys while watching "Sex and the City," gossip, have pizza nights and Chinese food nights, go to parties, go to the movies or just have dinner. Life in a sorority is fun, but it does come with its fair share of drama, such as one boy dating a couple of sisters (not at the same time of course) or because of course we are all girls and with a bunch of girls together, there is always going to be some degree of drama. However, sisters are best friends. They hold you up when you are down and pick you up off of the floor when you have had a bad night. They also are not afraid to tell you if you are making a bad decision. But most importantly, they support you when you do make a bad decision.
When I joined a sorority, I thought I knew what I was getting myself into, but I was wrong. Sorority life and my sisters are far better than I could have imagined.

This essay was not written on behalf of Alpha Gamma Delta, but rather as an insight into sorority life. The views and opinions in this paper do not necessarily reflect those of the fraternity.

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