the beginning of the beginning

On the last day of classes last semester, a fellow senior made the astute observation that second semester was the beginning of every single senior-attended event being graced by That Person who will remind us that, "Guuuuuuys, this is the last time we'll ever _________."

Not to be That Person or anything, but it hit me today--my last bid day--that I can barely remember what it was like to be a freshman, when everything was a First instead of a Last. I vaguely remember feeling lost as a freshman from not knowing any of the girls around me, who were all of a sudden "my sisters." I remember seeing how close everyone else in the sorority was with each other. I remember thinking how much older everyone else looked/thought/acted.

Sorority recruitment is always an event that I love and hate and hate loving and love hating; but when it comes down to it, recruitment is really 50% for the freshmen and 50% for the upperclassmen, in my opinion. For those 2 weeks I may feel like I attend an all-women's college, but--given how catty and petty women can be--it could be worse. A fellow Alpha Phi, during a long day last weekend, commented on how she had only received texts from approximately two people that entire day, which to her seemed strange... until she realized that basically all her friends had been locked into the same room with her for the past 12 hours.

All of it has made me realize that, though I've never considered myself a College Sorority Girl, I will always talk about how I was in a sorority in college, regardless of the stigma it might initially attach to me.

three hundred and sixty

I'm back at Duke.

My room is in the center of campus, overlooking the bus stop and Alpine Bagels, it has two closets and a ridiculous amount of floor space, and my roommate (from freshman year) is tenting.

Sorority recruitment is over, we have an entirely new freshman class of baby Phis, and I no longer have to spend 8+ hours clattering about in heels, with a permanent smile plastered on my face, and make conversation with girl after girl despite subsisting on only coffee and Lifesaver mints. Strangely though, I enjoy recruitment in a way because it forces us all to be in one room--and the fact that I leave recruitment loving the girls in my sorority instead of hating them really says something.

Classes are in full swing, there is a new floor in the library called the Link that is essentially the love child of Ikea and Apple, and it could not have come at a better time because my new moleskin planner is being rapidly filled up with readings, papers, and application deadlines.