dear rushees,

This next week of your life will be some of the most exciting, exhausting, confusing, uplifting, scary, *fill in the blank* times of your life. I am now going into my third year as a kappa, and I still feel butterflies when recruitment comes around. I still feel the nerves and the jitters of walking into the first sorority house on my schedule. I still feel the rejection of getting cut by houses I felt loved in. I still feel the question that followed: “was I not enough?” This is one of the most challenging aspects of rush week, in my opinion. You are placing yourself on stage knowing you could potentially be rejected. But that thinking leads down a trail of insecurity. Trust me, I have been there over and over again in my life. This next week, it is so important to change the word rejection to opportunity. As a rushee, you will hear “trust the process” probably more than you would like. So, I’m not going to say that here. What I will say is, trust the Lord and trust the girls. The girls in the houses you walk through want nothing more than for you to feel special, loved, welcomed, etc. Being on the other side, I can say this with full confidence. However, we can’t all take all of you incredible girls (as much as we wish we could) because rush is not about what house you get, it is about what community you get to build. That means that each house gets to take you girls, and we get to share each of you so that we can build a community of love and support beyond the walls of a particular sorority house- truly an extension of Recruitment’s intentions. To do this, the houses all have to have amazing girls whose hearts are open to what their contribution to their community will look like in order to strengthen the whole. Know that if you don’t get the house you want back, you are being given that opportunity. While it sounds as though I’m painting rush rosy, I mean every word having learned first hand what it means to be a “sorority girl.” It isn’t about the letters, it is about the people. It is a sense of belonging that occurs when you run to whichever house’s lawn and are surrounded by girls who cannot wait to meet you. That is what rush is about. Remind yourself over and over that rush is not about who is prettiest, who has the most stylish clothes, or who is the most popular. It is an exhibition of who you are and the opportunity to share that with every girl you talk to. Do not allow yourself to feel rejection- that is the last thing we want as members. Trust that the girls in each sorority genuinely want you to end up in a place you will thrive, and trust that the Lord has known exactly where you will be placed from the very beginning. He sees the light you will bring into that house, the relationships you will build, and the girls who will look up to you. He knows and wants you to rest in that. We are all praying for you, cheering you on, and excited for you to join the family. see you soon! ;)