Live Young Wild and Greek

Being a Gamma Chi

This post took a lot of thought over the past couple of weeks but even more so it took quite a long time to finally get on here. I can't believe I'm already heading into my third week of my senior year at college. What else is hard to imagine is the fact that I missed the recruitment week of my senior year. I will never recruit for Alpha Xi Delta during formal recruitment again....ever. Sure, I was involved in recruitment but I had the wonderful opportunity to be a Gamma Chi.

Gamma Chi's are basically a group of girls from different chapters that disaffiliate from their respected chapters for the week of recruitment. They remain neutral during this process and instead guide young women through the process of recruitment. Fun fact about us Gamma Chi's, we had to be incognito. We couldn't give away which chapter we're in whatsoever. I couldn't sit next to my sisters in class, I couldn't wear anything that showed my affiliation with Alpha Xi Delta, I couldn't give my sisters a hug when I saw them walking to class, I couldn't make late night trips to Walmart with them, nor could I go to any social events with them. I'm not going to lie, but that was the hardest two weeks of my life. 

My sisters are pretty much my family away from my family so having that cord cut was not only lonely but really frustrating. The amount of times I really wanted to get a car load of my sisters and run to Walmart so we could get pizza and ice cream together was unimaginable. However, being a Gamma Chi really opened my eyes to a different side of recruitment.

During recruitment, stress is high in each chapter as they prepare for the massive amounts of young women they have to try and impress. Some chapters practice talking points, some chapters craft until the sun comes up, and some chapters spend quality time getting to know their sisters. But the one thing each chapter has in common is the level of competitiveness with the other chapters on campus. Each chapter wants to find the girls that will fit in with their house the best. Sometimes that's a hard feat to the overcome considering a young woman could fit into two, three or maybe even four different houses. 

As a Gamma Chi, it was so helpful to the young women to remain neutral during this process. Mainly because we had the opportunity to talk to the young women in a different way. On the chapter's side of the recruitment, the number one point that you wanted to get across was why your specific chapter was the place these young women wanted to be in. Your number one job as a recruiter was to sell sell sell your chapter. The number one job as a Gamma Chi was sell the idea of Greek Life as a whole. 

Frankly, I loved it. It was so nice to take a step back from selling my chapter and to just be real with the girls. To help them find where they belonged. When I was a recruiter for my specific chapter, my number one pet peeve was to see a girl that I thought belonged so well with my house, go to different house instead. I think every recruiter had that same peeve. Honestly, it was frustrating. But while I was a Gamma Chi I got to know the girls in my group on a different level. I got to mentor them into joining a house that they loved. Sure, not every girl in my group belonged in my specific house, but I was ok with that. Because honestly, all the houses on our campus offers something a little different and they are all filled with great, awesome women. 

To me, being in Greek Life opened so many doors and pushed me to be a better person than I was in high school. I grew so much as a person and connected with so many different people on this campus through Greek Life. Being in Greek Life, showed that I was apart of something massive. I had something in common with so many people that I had never met before. Sure, Greek Life isn't for everyone, and that's ok. But, it definitely is worth a shot. Being able to persuade young women into giving Greek Life a shot was hard but so worthwhile. 

Being a Gamma Chi helped take away some of the competitiveness that I had developed over the years. I got along so well with the other Gamma Chi's and I became great friends with them even though we were in different houses. Being a Gamma Chi opened my eyes to Greek Life as a whole. Each house is filled with amazing girls who have found their home and their family. Who am I to say which family is better? I found my family and I was so blessed to be able to help young women going through recruitment find theirs. 

Sure, the competitive nature we have towards other houses on campus is pretty much inevitable. It's just how we are and its been rooted in us since our freshman year. However, we can't forget that a chapter is a family. And just because that family maybe bigger than ours or have a prettier house than ours doesn't mean that our family is broken or wrong. Greek Life isn't about the amount of people you have in your house, the cumulative GPA your chapter has, or how pretty of a Chapter House you have. Greek Life is about family, home, and being apart of something bigger than yourself. Remember: No matter the letter, we are tied together.