Fields said although she’s always been the kind of person who is hesitant to interact with people she’s not used to being around, going through recruitment helped her step out of her comfort zone.
“I was super nervous beforehand, but when things finally got going, it wasn’t like that at all,” she said. “All of the girls were really cool and fun to talk to, and I definitely learned a lot about myself. I’m used to being shy and nervous around people I’ve never met before, but going through recruitment made me put ?myself out there.”
Fields said she was surprised by her own attitude during the first day.
“I was able to stay peppy and positive all day,” she said.
Not every aspect of recruitment was fun and happy, Fields said. There were moments where she felt badly about some aspects.
“Sixteen party was a little harder for me because I didn’t get back all the chapters I wanted,” she said. “Things got a little emotional, but my rho gam was really helpful and talked me through a lot of it. When it came to nine party, although there were some chapters on my schedule that I wasn’t so in to, I stayed positive and kept an open mind and ended up loving the ones I went back to.”
She said once it came to an end, making her final decision was difficult because she came to love all of them.
Similar to Fields, IU sophomore Lawson Gutzwiller also looked at recruitment as a learning experience.
“Although I became really stressed out during recruitment, I discovered new things about myself along the way,” she said. “Being around so many girls really opened my eyes to which chapter I would fit in best with and seeing where I would possibly end up helped me grow as an individual. It was a time of self-reflection.”
Both Fields and Gutzwiller said a major contributing factor to their great experience was the bonding between the girls, both ones they already knew and ones they just met.
With the arrival of bid day, both Fields and Gutzwiller said they were happy with the decision to go through ?recruitment.
They recommend anyone considering the process to go into it without expectations.
“I went into it with an open mind, and it made all the difference,” Fields said. “I know girls who dropped out of recruitment altogether just because they didn’t get houses back they wanted, and they’re missing out on the opportunities they could have had.”
