Clare Maloney (PC ‘18) shares her experience with recruitment, and #WhyTriDelta was the only place for her!

It is hard to believe that it was almost a year ago that I met my absolute best friends in the world.

As I am thinking back to my experience with recruitment, I realize that it was so different than most people’s that it’s almost ironic. The first day of recruitment, I did not know what to expect whatsoever. I entered each round with an obnoxiously big smile and butterflies in my stomach, trying to pre-select my answers to questions, in an effort to avoid any potential awkward silence. We were told by our Pi Chis to take notes after each round to help us remember what we liked and did not like about each sorority. It was great advice, and I did for the first few hours, until I attended my first round in Tri Delta. I am not exaggerating when I say that before I even got placed in my correct spot in line, I just knew that I was in the right place — I was a little too excited and had to tell myself to calm down (kind of embarrassing)! Everything from then on out was pretty much decided for me. When the curtains opened, and I started walking into the room, I was literally singing along to their chants without even realizing it. I still remember every single conversation that I had during the first round of recruitment. More importantly, though, I remember being dragged out dead last because I just did not want to leave these girls (that I had known for only a solid 30 minutes, of course). I stopped taking notes from then on out because I didn’t need to know anything else, I knew that these were absolutely my people.

Some of the seniors would joke around with me the following weeks after bid day because I kept screaming “this is the best day of my life!!!” an obnoxious number of times, to the point where people knew it was me in the crowd of 200 girls. Opening my card on bid day and seeing that I had gotten a bid wasn’t the best feeling of the entire process, though. The best feeling was when I pushed my way to the very front of the line (sorry guys) so that I could run down the hill first, running (and kind of jumping) so fast that I actually thought that I was about to bust it in front of the entire sorority on Bowman field. There were so many girls that I had never seen before in my life that I was embracing as if they were my long lost family members who I thought I would never see again. After that day, I didn’t feel awkward or scared around anyone in the sorority anymore because I knew that we had a bond through Tri Delta. It’s hard to explain, but awesome to feel. I know that sounds cliche, but it is beyond true — there is not one girl in the entire sorority that I do not love.

The friendships that I have developed through Tri Delta have made me into the person that I am today. Because of Tri Delta, I have found girls that aren’t afraid to tell me like it is, who will be there to laugh at/with me in absolutely any scenario, who will push me harder not just in school but as a person, who will share anything and everything with you, and who will always make me feel so loved no matter what the occasion. I am so thankful to have found the people that I get to share the rest of my college experience with through Tri Delta, because they get to be my lifelong best friends AND sisters, something that I will never take for granted.

So much Delta Love,

Clare