Chapel Day

Anyone who attended Georgetown College knows that Chapel Day was/is a big deal!  At Georgetown, they have deferred recruitment for sororities and fraternities.  That means instead of coming to school a few weeks before the fall semester of your freshman year, going through recruitment and jumping in headfirst to a group, you have an entire semester to get to know people. You see them interact in the caf, in classes, at parties and see how they treat you. They had informal rush parties where they did skits and some groups hosted weekly devotions in their lobby. 

When I left for Christmas break after the first semester, I had no intention of going through Rush. I had met several nice girls, in several sororities. My RA was a Sigma Kappa and I had tried out for a singing group through the Baptist Student Unioncalled Manna and been selected to join that group. The other girls in that group were also Sigmas. 

Randomly, over break, several events occurred that led me to change my mind. I decided I might not pledge, but I would consider going through rush. I had a very vivid dream over break and several girls were in it. I was going through rush and met this girl I had not really met before. Her name was Monica. 

When I came back from break, several of my friends and hall mates all decided to go through rush together. We had so much fun!!  Each night we were divided into rush groups. We went from house to house meeting girls, watching skits, learning about their philanthropies and more. The first night was Open House. The second night was Philanthropy night and the last night was Prefence party. 

I had become close to a girl that was in a different sorority and she had taken me around at her house. Then I got to the Sigma house and I knew I wanted to be there. I told my friends I needed to take a walk and went around the quad and across campus by myself. I didn't want to hurt my friend's feelings. She had even mentioned wanting to make me her little sis. I remember praying and asking God to show me what to do. 

I went back to my room and my roommate and friends were all ready to make our sweatshirts for running out of the chapel. The next day, we all got notes in our mailboxes saying our bid had been matched. None of us went "suicide", so we didn't know which sorority we had been matched to exactly. 

We went back to our room and waited anxiously for the time to go to the chapel. We met in the room with our rush group. One by one, she passed out our bid cards. The next few minutes were a huge blur. I remember seeing Sigma Kappa and squealing with friends. We put on our homemade sweatshirts. We got with our hall mates to go out together. When they threw open the chapel doors, we ran out and there was just a sea of girls. Each sorority was chanting and cheering and squealing!!  We walked out backwards and then turned around and everyone was jumping up and down and screaming. We ran down the steps into the mob of Sigma girls!  They gave us the famous "red sweatshirt" that I still love and wear. 

After everyone ran out of the chapel, we did circle up and then pictures on the steps of Giddings Hall. They took us back to the sorority house for pizza and fun. We found out who our big sis was and crazy enough, it was Monica!!  She was so sweet to me. 

I had 38 other girls in my pledge class. They were from different places, different backgrounds and we didn't all do everything together. There were cliques and groups within the larger group, but I LOVED every single minute of my time as a Sigma Kappa. Some of my dearest and most treasured friends are still those girls. 

Last night, I went to dinner with 10 of them. We realized that it was the 20th anniversary of our Chapel Day for most of us -- how in the world???  It seems like yesterday. I can hear the sounds of people laughing on the hallway. I remember pranks and phone calls, late night pizza orders, watching Friends every Thursday night, going out on weekends, pledge parties, Watermelon Bust, Greek Games, Grub fest, formals, rush week, Initiation and SongFest. 

Those truly were some of the best days of my life. Those girls got me through some of the worst times. I will never forget that or them. 

1 Heart 1 Way!!!