As I'm sure many of y'all know by now, I went through sorority recruitment here at Carolina back in August and ended up receiving a bid from Delta Zeta! From the moment I stepped inside the ΔΖ house I knew that it was a place that I could see myself and it just so ended up that ΔΖ became my new home away from home!
My mom was a Delta Zeta when she was in college and while I had always thought that it would be cool to be sisters with my mom, I told herself that I wasn't going to let my mom's affiliation to the chapter affect or influence my decisions during recruitment. When I received my shirt on bid day and read the words "Delta Zeta" I cried and ran home to my new sisters and once I was settled into the crowd with all my other ΔΖ sisters I remember texting my mom and saying "Hi sister!"
Recruitment was a long and extremely tiring process but it was so worth it! I'll likely write more about the recruitment process over the summer as we grow nearer to recruitment so if you're curious about that definitely let me know! I have a ton of photos from my first months as a Delta Zeta so today I'm going to be sharing some with y'all because I know that I always love to see photos from other people's sororities!
Bid Day
Bid day, best day, am I right? Bid day at Carolina is so, so much fun and I would definitely go back and do it all over again. Bid day happens in our basketball arena and a couple of groups of PNM's are taken inside at a time and we all stand in a circle with our backs towards each other and we put our hands behind our backs and our pi chi's go around and put the shirt of our future chapter's in our hands. Once everyone has a shirt, they count down from 10 and then everyone gets to unwrap their shirt, throw it on and run home to their new sisters!
I don't think I have been as nervous as I was when I had that shirt in my hands. When I saw that my shirt said Delta Zeta I cried and it turned out that one of my good friends in my pi chi group also went ΔΖ so we ran home together! Once we found ΔΖ in the arena our chapter president ran out and gave us a huge hug and helped us find our bid day buddies!
After everyone is with their new chapter each sorority heads back to their house and takes pictures and then each chapter has a different bid day party which is super fun.
My roommate Sophie received a bid from Alpha Gamma Delta and once we finally made it home that night we took the photo below and it's probably one of our favorite photos we've taken together!
Throw what you know in Asheville, North Carolina
When hurricane Irma was predicted to hit Columbia, classes got cancelled for an upcoming Monday and since one of my suite mates lives up in Asheville, North Carolina, we headed up there for the weekend because Columbia was supposed to get hit pretty hard. Turns out that all Columbia really had was a bit of wind and lots of rain but it was still nice to take a weekend road trip someplace new!
In Asheville we drove up the Blue Ridge Parkway which was super pretty and we also stopped to hike up Frying Pan Tower which was definitely worth it for the views but since I'm not a fan of heights by any means, being on a metal tower up this high definitely freaked me out. My suite mate Peyton snapped this photo of me "throwing what I know" once we got to the top of the tower and I love it!
Fall Band: 70's Themed
Most sororities here at Carolina have Fall Band as their function. Fall Band for us this year was 70's themed which was fun but it was definitely a struggle trying to pull together some 70's styled clothing pieces. I took my roommate Sophie as my date and we had a lot of fun. Our function was at Music Farm which is a super cool venue in the Vista here in Columbia.
ΔΖ Christmas
The way that Delta Zeta does big/little reveal here at Carolina is that we have 2 nights of gifts (ΔΖ Christmas) and then we have reveal. My big definitely spoiled me but I am very appreciative for all the sweet canvases and t-shirts and other goodies that she got me! I'm already super excited to take a little next year and have already started thinking of gift ideas!
Big Little Reveal
Aside from bid day, big little reveal is definitely another fun day for sororities! The way big little reveal works for us is that you typically will get your reveal costume on the second night of ΔΖ Christmas and then once you get to the house on reveal night you'll pick up a piece of wrapping paper that will match the giant box that your big is hiding in. Once everyone has their paper scrap everyone runs out back and finds the box that matches their wrapping paper and your big will pop out!
I love my family so, so much. I'm a twin which is so fun! On the second night of gifts my twin and I were both told to pick-up our gifts at the same time because our big had set them up next to each other with a sign that said "Riley & Lynn, surprise you're twins!"
My twin, Lynn and I get along extremely well and actually live about an hour and half apart in Ohio so road trips over Christmas and summer break are definitely in our futures. My big, Meghan is the sweetest and I love her to pieces. You'll definitely be seeing lots of pictures of my fam throughout the years so get excited about that!
Parent's Weekend
Parent's Weekend was super fun because my dad was able to rearrange his work schedule so that he could come down and spend the weekend with me! Delta Zeta has an open house on Friday afternoon so my dad was able to go on a tour of the house which was super fun and I'm glad he got to learn more about my chapter! ΔΖ also hosted a low country boil Friday night which was fun because my dad got to meet some of my friends as well as my twin and my big! Of course I made him take a picture with me by the banner because it was too cute not to!
Second Function: You Are What You Netflix
Our second function was on Friday October 13th and the theme was you are what your Netflix which basically meant dress up as your favorite Netflix show characters. My best friend Katie's fall break happened to fall this weekend so she was able to stop by Columbia and be the Serena to my Blair at my function! It was so much fun getting to spend some time with Katie and being able to introduce her to my friends and show her the ΔΖ house!
Initiation
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, my mom was a Delta Zeta which meant that she was allowed to come to initiation and take part in my initiation process. I'm so glad that my mom got to take part in this and it was nice to get to spend the weekend with her and introduce her to my twin & my big, too! I shared this photo below on my personal Instagram and captioned it "walked into the house as her daughter, walked out of the house as her daughter AND her sister."
Throw what you know in Columbia, South Carolina
The same weekend that Katie came to my function, we also ventured downtown to Soda City (which you can read all about HERE) and on our way home we stopped at the State House to take some pictures. Katie snapped this photo of me throwing what I know and I'm really happy with how it turned out!
With semi-formal coming up and various other events, definitely be on the lookout for another photo update in the near future!
xoxo,
