Latest / The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast / Dirty Rush: In the Bonds of Sisterhood, This is the Most Sacred…We Reveal the Secrets of Initiation

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Dirty Rush: In the Bonds of Sisterhood, This is the Most Sacred…We Reveal the Secrets of Initiation · The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Dirty Rush, The Truth about Sorority Life with
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: your hosts me Gia Judice, Daisy.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Kent, and Jennifer Kessler. Okay, folks, not to be dramatic,
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: but this really is the episode that even our producers
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: were hesitant to do because it involves breaking an oath
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: sworn by those who joined Greek life. We are lifting
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: the veil on the most mysterious part of joining a sorority,
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: which has never been discussed publicly until now.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: We're talking about initiation, the transition from pledge to sorority sister,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: a process that has been kept top secret for well
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: over a century. This bonding ritual is so steeped in tradition,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: generations of pledges have been sworn to secrecy, but today
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: those secrets are coming out.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: The following guests agreed to reveal what really happens during initiation,
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: provided they remain completely anonymous, to the point where we
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: as hosts couldn't speak to them directly. That is how
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: sacred this pact for sisterhoods around there is. The voices
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: you are about to hear have been altered, the identities blurred,
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: but the stories are one hundred percent authentic. This is
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: what every sorority in America doesn't want you to know.
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: So initiation is definitely one of those things in sorority
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: life that is that people are more apprehensive to talk about.
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: I feel like because it's so ritual based and it's
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: so individual to the sorority, people are super secretive about it.
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: And there's definitely details that I feel protective over. But
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: it's hard to explain why. I think just because it's
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: so individual to your sorority and like that is your
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: entrance to all of it, and it feels so sacred.
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: But there definitely are some things that I am willing
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: to share. I think mostly it's just kind of a blur. Essentially,
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: you go to the house in different shifts of time
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: and am my sorority. I think there were three different
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: shifts of time, so there were three different groups of
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: girls that went to the house, and you're all kind
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: of shuttled into this room where you are supposed to
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: change into these robe gown things, and you don't really
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: know what's about to happen, so there's a lot of
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: anticipation and there's a lot of speculation beforehand between girls
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: about what's going to happen, and people would like to
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: think they know self or spread rumors about things that
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: are going to happen that are scary or whatever, but
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: really none. If it's scary, it's just unknown. And the
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: older girls come in once you're ready, And what happened
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: for us is they just took us room to room,
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: but you're supposed to close your eyes in between each room,
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: which I thought was really interesting, probably to just keep
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: that element of surprise alive. But everybody's like covering their
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: eyes and holding hands. I'm walking in the line and
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: it feels so silly. And then in room that we
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: ended up in within the house, there was a ritual
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: to be performed or something that was read and kind
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: of just took you through like all of the all
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: of these different ceremonies that represented the virtues of the
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: sorority or the most important symbols and things like that.
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: And there was one room in particular where you instructed
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: to drink something. And I won't give the name of
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: it away because I feel like it would give the
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: name of my sorority away pretty easily. But you're instructed
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: to drink something, and I have a lot of food allergies,
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: so I was really apprehensive, and I was like, huh,
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: like no, I'm going to pass, Like what's in this?
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: And they're like, we can't tell you. It's a secret
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: and you just have to drink it. And I was
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: like no, like I have a lot of allergies, Like
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: can you just tell me what's in it? And they
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: wouldn't tell me what was in it, and they were like,
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: we think it will be fine, like it's stuff that
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: people would not typically be allergic to it, and I,
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: looking back, should have just stood up for myself more.
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: But I ended up drinking it and I was allergic
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: to the juice that was in it.
• 4:09
  Speaker 5: It wasn't alcohol or anything.
• 4:11
  Speaker 6: Bad like that.
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: It was just this weird mixture of some sort of
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: juice that I was allergic to.
• 4:15
  Speaker 7: To this day, I.
• 4:16
  Speaker 5: Don't even know what was in it. They wouldn't tell me.
• 4:19
  Speaker 7: But I did end up having.
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: To leave Initiation early because I drank this juice and
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: I needed to go find a benadroll. So that was
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: my experience with Initiation. I got through a few of
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: the rituals, but I actually never completed the entire thing.
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: So it was interesting in the following years to be
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: an older girl who was leading initiation and to see
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: the other parts of it fully come together, because when
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: I was initiated, I didn't get to like fully experience
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: the whole thing through. One other thing that I loved
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: that they did that I thought was just the sweetest
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: part of it all was at the end, when you
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: went back into that original room that you were in,
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: rechanged into your robes and everything. They had slipped these
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: letters from older girls into our bags. So we all
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: left not like really knowing anything. But then later on
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: throughout the day, people started realizing that these letters from
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: older girls had been slipped into our bags, and it
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: was so fun to read just the words of encouragement
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: for college and the words of advice for soaking it
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: all in and like really enjoying your years and your sorority,
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: and everybody had.
• 5:34
  Speaker 5: Such a sweet sentiment.
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: So I thought that that was a really sweet part
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: of initiation as well.
• 5:40
  Speaker 8: Okay, so when it was like mid day and we
• 5:43
  Speaker 8: got into our sororities and we're all so excited, and
• 5:45
  Speaker 8: I think, like when I was going through your rush,
• 5:50
  Speaker 8: it was like right before like the Bama Rush stuff,
• 5:54
  Speaker 8: and it got like huge, so but it was still
• 5:58
  Speaker 8: like I didn't know much about it. Whatever got my
• 6:01
  Speaker 8: bid and I was all excited and then like the
• 6:05
  Speaker 8: next day we're getting all of our information like okay,
• 6:10
  Speaker 8: initiation is in three weeks. And then so I think
• 6:14
  Speaker 8: for initiation we were kind of like, oh what is this?
• 6:18
  Speaker 8: And like you always like hear things, especially as a freshman,
• 6:21
  Speaker 8: and you don't really know like anything about sorority stuff,
• 6:24
  Speaker 8: Like you hear like these crazy like core stories that
• 6:27
  Speaker 8: are like they do blah blah blah, like they call
• 6:31
  Speaker 8: you fat like whatever, and so like that was always
• 6:33
  Speaker 8: something that we were scared about or like just like
• 6:36
  Speaker 8: any freshman would be that doesn't know anything about rush.
• 6:39
  Speaker 8: And then so I think it was three weeks later
• 6:42
  Speaker 8: we went through we had like meetings that we would
• 6:45
  Speaker 8: go in and they would talk about the sorority and
• 6:47
  Speaker 8: all the history of the sorority.
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: And then our.
• 6:51
  Speaker 8: Initiation day and the night before we got a text
• 6:54
  Speaker 8: and was like show up in nude underwear and in
• 6:59
  Speaker 8: new bra and white socks. So we were like, Okay,
• 7:03
  Speaker 8: this is really creepy, Like are we gonna be naked?
• 7:06
  Speaker 8: Like that's really weird. So anyway, we like we're all
• 7:10
  Speaker 8: kind of like thinking like what is about to happen.
• 7:12
  Speaker 8: We have to be all in nude underwear. This is weird.
• 7:16
  Speaker 8: Then we ended up going we like had blindfolds. They
• 7:21
  Speaker 8: like blindfolded us, and someone like brought us like held
• 7:25
  Speaker 8: our backs and like walked us to We were somewhere
• 7:29
  Speaker 8: like in the school, but it was like this random,
• 7:32
  Speaker 8: like big huge room with nothing in it. We had
• 7:35
  Speaker 8: blindfolds on, and then they like brought us up and
• 7:39
  Speaker 8: there was a curtain. We were like on a stage,
• 7:41
  Speaker 8: but the curtain was closed, and then they're like, okay,
• 7:43
  Speaker 8: you can take your blindfolds. Us change into this and
• 7:46
  Speaker 8: it was like this like white sack and it was
• 7:50
  Speaker 8: like so weird. And then we had like to tie
• 7:53
  Speaker 8: like a when then we had a rope to tie
• 7:55
  Speaker 8: around us and it was like just creepy. And then
• 7:59
  Speaker 8: we put blindfolds back on and then they let us
• 8:04
  Speaker 8: down like these stairs, and then we like walk into
• 8:08
  Speaker 8: a room that people are like humming and it's really
• 8:12
  Speaker 8: creepy and colty, and then like we all they lead
• 8:17
  Speaker 8: us into our circle and then they're like okay, singing
• 8:22
  Speaker 8: all these like weird chants and singing songs whatever, and
• 8:25
  Speaker 8: they're like okay, you can take off your blindfolds now,
• 8:27
  Speaker 8: and so we would take off her blindfolds and then
• 8:33
  Speaker 8: some people would like turn around and it would be
• 8:36
  Speaker 8: someone that they're like their relative, their mom, their sister
• 8:41
  Speaker 8: that was in the same sorority as them, and to
• 8:45
  Speaker 8: like they surprised them. They turned around and it was like, Oh,
• 8:49
  Speaker 8: my gosh, your mom's here, and that was like really cute.
• 8:53
  Speaker 8: And then one of my friends turned around and her
• 8:58
  Speaker 8: sister was there, and I don't know if it was
• 9:00
  Speaker 8: like just like we were so anxious and like her
• 9:04
  Speaker 8: seeing her sister as a surprise, but she just like
• 9:06
  Speaker 8: fainted and so that kind of like a damper on
• 9:11
  Speaker 8: the whole initiation process. So then the ambulance came.
• 9:16
  Speaker 7: They checked her out.
• 9:19
  Speaker 8: And she ended up being fine. But then we just
• 9:21
  Speaker 8: went right back to chanting our weird songs and singing,
• 9:26
  Speaker 8: and then we got like our pins and that was
• 9:29
  Speaker 8: about it.
• 9:45
  Speaker 9: I remember initiation is a little bit of a blur
• 9:48
  Speaker 9: because it happened in the morning after, you know, freshman year.
• 9:53
  Speaker 9: I never really took a Saturday night easy, and our
• 9:57
  Speaker 9: initiation was on a Sunday morning, and I remember not
• 10:03
  Speaker 9: just me, but me and a bunch of my sorority
• 10:05
  Speaker 9: sisters had gone out the night before, and we were
• 10:08
  Speaker 9: just like scrambling to get to the house on time.
• 10:11
  Speaker 9: I remember, particularly my freshman year, the seniors were really
• 10:15
  Speaker 9: mean to us.
• 10:16
  Speaker 5: They just were.
• 10:19
  Speaker 9: Really just like on a high horse and just like
• 10:22
  Speaker 9: a power trip. And I remember them screaming at us
• 10:26
  Speaker 9: in the group chat, being like, if you are late
• 10:29
  Speaker 9: to your initiation time, you are being dropped from the sorority.
• 10:32
  Speaker 9: And so it was a really big deal that we
• 10:34
  Speaker 9: get there on time. And I remember me and my
• 10:38
  Speaker 9: friends down the hall in my dorm, who were also
• 10:40
  Speaker 9: my sorority. We all woke up late to like for
• 10:46
  Speaker 9: our initiation that was that morning, and it's a Sunday morning,
• 10:50
  Speaker 9: and we're all scrambling. We're ordering an uber to the
• 10:52
  Speaker 9: sorty house that's only just like across campus. Usually you
• 10:55
  Speaker 9: would walk, and we all scramble and get there on time.
• 10:58
  Speaker 9: But then we realized that they told us that we
• 11:01
  Speaker 9: need to memorize these so I'm going to stop myself.
• 11:06
  Speaker 9: The thing about initiation is that it's really even all easyars.
• 11:11
  Speaker 5: Later something that's very sacred to sorority.
• 11:14
  Speaker 9: And I was in a sorority that was just like
• 11:17
  Speaker 9: really prioritize tradition, so it was it's it's hard to
• 11:25
  Speaker 9: like reveal certain aspects, but I can say that we
• 11:28
  Speaker 9: did have these like ceremonial songs that we would all sing,
• 11:32
  Speaker 9: and it was a big especially to our sorority. We
• 11:36
  Speaker 9: really really like had to sing the songs. And they
• 11:40
  Speaker 9: had assigned us the songs prior to initiation, and we
• 11:43
  Speaker 9: were supposed to, like part of our initiation, learn these songs.
• 11:49
  Speaker 9: And you know, sometimes when you're hungover and you're just
• 11:52
  Speaker 9: still think you're still drunk, and I remember like being
• 11:56
  Speaker 9: put into robes to start the initiation. We're blindful did
• 12:00
  Speaker 9: crossing from room to room, and not only did I
• 12:05
  Speaker 9: not memorize the song that we were supposed to sing,
• 12:07
  Speaker 9: but none of us like remember the song that we
• 12:11
  Speaker 9: were supposed to sing. And we were being blindfolded and
• 12:16
  Speaker 9: walked from one room to the next, and I just
• 12:20
  Speaker 9: start cracking up. And then soon enough, like everyone in
• 12:24
  Speaker 9: the line walking to the next room, everyone is just
• 12:27
  Speaker 9: dying laughing. And these seniors that took our sorority very
• 12:32
  Speaker 9: seriously just were so pissed and they were like, you
• 12:38
  Speaker 9: guys are being so disrespectful.
• 12:40
  Speaker 5: You can't believe you didn't learn the.
• 12:42
  Speaker 9: Song, and we heard all about it on Chapter that
• 12:45
  Speaker 9: Monday morning. But in the moment we everyone just started
• 12:49
  Speaker 9: laughing and they didn't really know what to do with themselves.
• 12:51
  Speaker 5: So soon enough, like we.
• 12:53
  Speaker 9: Quieted the laughs and went on to the next room
• 12:56
  Speaker 9: and carried on with the ceremony.
• 13:00
  Speaker 5: But needless to say.
• 13:02
  Speaker 9: Our pledge class was then dubbed the worst PC ever
• 13:07
  Speaker 9: because when we came to Chapter that Monday morning, they
• 13:11
  Speaker 9: literally told us, you guys are the worst pledge class
• 13:14
  Speaker 9: we've ever had. We've never had people not know the
• 13:18
  Speaker 9: song nevertheless erupt in laughter while trying attempting to sing
• 13:24
  Speaker 9: the song, and we continued on that reputation. We all
• 13:30
  Speaker 9: got very close our pledge class, but we definitely really
• 13:35
  Speaker 9: pushed the envelope in terms of what was allowed in
• 13:38
  Speaker 9: when we all lived in the house and just moving on.
• 13:42
  Speaker 9: But we were all very close, And yeah, that's what
• 13:45
  Speaker 9: I remember about initiation.
• 13:47
  Speaker 5: I also remember just being very hungover and not wanting
• 13:49
  Speaker 5: to go. So that's all I can really say.
• 13:53
  Speaker 10: Initiation is like it's the one part of the sorority
• 13:58
  Speaker 10: that I'm probably the most secretive about, like the most
• 14:01
  Speaker 10: sort of protective about, And I.
• 14:03
  Speaker 11: Don't really know why.
• 14:05
  Speaker 10: I don't really know much about other initiations, so I
• 14:09
  Speaker 10: feel like other people are really secretive about it too.
• 14:12
  Speaker 10: Maybe it's the one thing that feels sacred. I don't
• 14:15
  Speaker 10: know if that's a weird way to describe it. There's
• 14:17
  Speaker 10: a few things I am willing to say, but of
• 14:22
  Speaker 10: all the things, like rush, I would give secrets living
• 14:27
  Speaker 10: in the sorority, Like I would never tell somebody my password,
• 14:32
  Speaker 10: the door knock, the handshake unless they were another member
• 14:38
  Speaker 10: of that sorority. Like even right now, I don't even
• 14:40
  Speaker 10: want to say what school I went to or what
• 14:41
  Speaker 10: sorority I was in, because I am going to say
• 14:44
  Speaker 10: a few things about initiation because I think there is
• 14:46
  Speaker 10: a lot of curiosity, And like I said, I know
• 14:51
  Speaker 10: a lot of things about Greek life, and I don't
• 14:54
  Speaker 10: know anything about other people's initiations, especially the boys.
• 14:58
  Speaker 11: I don't know anything about about what they do. So
• 15:01
  Speaker 11: here's what I will say.
• 15:03
  Speaker 10: At the time when I was initiated, and I have
• 15:06
  Speaker 10: only vague memories of it, and I think that's also
• 15:08
  Speaker 10: because it's very early in the morning and you're kind
• 15:11
  Speaker 10: of tired, so and I only remember being initiated.
• 15:15
  Speaker 11: I have some vague memories of that, and I remember
• 15:17
  Speaker 11: doing initiation like once. I can't I'm sure I did
• 15:21
  Speaker 11: it a few other times.
• 15:22
  Speaker 10: So what I will say is I didn't live at
• 15:25
  Speaker 10: the house at the time in the sorority. I live
• 15:27
  Speaker 10: somewhere else, but I remember we spent the night in
• 15:30
  Speaker 10: the sorority, so I think you go you sleep in
• 15:34
  Speaker 10: other girls' rooms. This is all my vague memories, and
• 15:37
  Speaker 10: I can remember. I think my big sister wakes you
• 15:41
  Speaker 10: up very early, and you put on what they refer
• 15:45
  Speaker 10: to as a robe, but like we're not talking like
• 15:47
  Speaker 10: a Barefoot Dreams robe, Like this isn't like a cozy
• 15:50
  Speaker 10: like robe that has like coffee mugs on it. Like
• 15:54
  Speaker 10: it was like almost like a cap and gown type robe,
• 15:57
  Speaker 10: no cap, so I would call it a gown. And
• 16:00
  Speaker 10: I have a vague memory.
• 16:01
  Speaker 11: Of a belt that was like a cord. I don't
• 16:04
  Speaker 11: want to say rope because that makes it sound scary,
• 16:07
  Speaker 11: but I think.
• 16:07
  Speaker 10: It was like you tied the robe or the gown
• 16:11
  Speaker 10: so that you could like walk around. And I kind
• 16:13
  Speaker 10: of remember, like it was very early now if I
• 16:17
  Speaker 10: was blindfolded, I also don't totally remember. They might have
• 16:20
  Speaker 10: just said close your eyes I don't really like being blindfolded,
• 16:23
  Speaker 10: so I might have said, like, I promise, I'll close
• 16:25
  Speaker 10: my eyes, just don't blindfold me. And they kind of
• 16:27
  Speaker 10: like walk you around the house and you don't really
• 16:29
  Speaker 10: know where you are and you don't really know what's happening.
• 16:32
  Speaker 10: The part I will reveal is I went into this
• 16:37
  Speaker 10: room and I kind of knew what room I was
• 16:39
  Speaker 10: going into. The room was all red, and I look
• 16:43
  Speaker 10: up and I kind of remember being on my knees,
• 16:46
  Speaker 10: not in a weird way that sounds like inappropriate.
• 16:48
  Speaker 11: It's not like that, you're just kind of like sitting
• 16:50
  Speaker 11: but kneeling.
• 16:51
  Speaker 12: I don't know.
• 16:52
  Speaker 11: And I look up and my mom was in the room.
• 16:55
  Speaker 10: Now, to give you context, my mom was in the
• 16:58
  Speaker 10: same sorority as me at the same school, so she
• 17:03
  Speaker 10: never told me, but obviously somehow she figured it out
• 17:06
  Speaker 10: or they call her. She calls and she knows what
• 17:08
  Speaker 10: time to be there, and she's got like a I
• 17:10
  Speaker 10: kind of remember her with like a book and she's
• 17:12
  Speaker 10: reading something. Now I'm not going to call it a
• 17:15
  Speaker 10: prayer because it wasn't a prayer, but it was like
• 17:18
  Speaker 10: she's reading something. Now you're completely like bewildered or whatever
• 17:23
  Speaker 10: the word is, like, because you're so early and you're like,
• 17:25
  Speaker 10: what's happening that I cannot remember anything she said because
• 17:28
  Speaker 10: I'm like.
• 17:28
  Speaker 11: My mom's in here.
• 17:30
  Speaker 10: And then I do remember going back out and one
• 17:32
  Speaker 10: of my really really good friends saying, like, dude, your
• 17:36
  Speaker 10: mom was in there, like so I can remember that,
• 17:39
  Speaker 10: and it was all red and my mom was wearing
• 17:41
  Speaker 10: either the same thing I was wearing, or like, I
• 17:43
  Speaker 10: don't know, maybe a slightly different version. And then it
• 17:47
  Speaker 10: goes on and on, and then I can remember going
• 17:50
  Speaker 10: into a big room and I think my big sister
• 17:54
  Speaker 10: was there and my mom and there was sort of
• 17:56
  Speaker 10: like a.
• 17:56
  Speaker 11: Ceremony and my mom was involved in it. And I
• 18:03
  Speaker 11: think they give you something.
• 18:04
  Speaker 10: I don't want to reveal what, because again I'm being like,
• 18:08
  Speaker 10: this is the one thing that I'm.
• 18:09
  Speaker 11: Kind of a bit more secretive about. She gives me something.
• 18:12
  Speaker 10: I'll call it a piece of jewelry, and it was
• 18:17
  Speaker 10: hers that she then gave to me.
• 18:20
  Speaker 11: I actually think she did trust me at the time
• 18:21
  Speaker 11: and took it back. I think she still has it.
• 18:23
  Speaker 11: I definitely don't have.
• 18:24
  Speaker 10: It, and I can remember, like the only other part
• 18:30
  Speaker 10: I will reveal is I had no idea what a
• 18:32
  Speaker 10: palm frawn was, and definitely through sorority life, I learned
• 18:36
  Speaker 10: I now know what a palm prawn was, So there
• 18:38
  Speaker 10: are definitely palm frons involved. And then I think it
• 18:41
  Speaker 10: was like a breakfast. Then it kind of gets normal
• 18:43
  Speaker 10: after sort of this ceremony. Then it's just like any
• 18:46
  Speaker 10: old other sort of sorority party. So that's the part
• 18:50
  Speaker 10: that I feel comfortable sharing. I definitely was on the
• 18:53
  Speaker 10: other side of initiation one or two times.
• 18:56
  Speaker 11: I also think this is the other thing.
• 18:58
  Speaker 10: I think it's kind of a pain in the ass
• 19:00
  Speaker 10: go to lie, Like I think it's a lot of
• 19:01
  Speaker 10: work to do. So I kind of remember seniors sort
• 19:05
  Speaker 10: of tapping out, like being like, I'm not doing initiation.
• 19:08
  Speaker 10: So that is the top top most secret things I
• 19:11
  Speaker 10: am willing to reveal, and I'm very curious to hear
• 19:15
  Speaker 10: what other people have to say.
• 19:17
  Speaker 7: Okay, so for my initiation, I remember like always hearing
• 19:23
  Speaker 7: about fraternity initiations, but never really swarty initiations. I feel
• 19:28
  Speaker 7: like for fraternities it's usually like the end of their
• 19:31
  Speaker 7: pledge ship and like it's at the end of the semester,
• 19:34
  Speaker 7: end of the year, depending on the school and so
• 19:36
  Speaker 7: I feel like it was always like a big deal
• 19:39
  Speaker 7: for fraternity men to get initiated because it kind of
• 19:42
  Speaker 7: meant like they were at the end of all their
• 19:44
  Speaker 7: pledging and everything, so it was like a big deal
• 19:46
  Speaker 7: for them. But I never had really heard much about
• 19:49
  Speaker 7: Swarty initiation, So for me, I remember leading up to initiation,
• 19:55
  Speaker 7: the only thing we ever had to do was it
• 19:58
  Speaker 7: was like dressing up. So once we had to dress
• 20:01
  Speaker 7: up and like a nice outfit. It wasn't like anything
• 20:03
  Speaker 7: like really specific, but I remember just couldn't be like
• 20:05
  Speaker 7: workout clothes or jeans. Actually I think jeans were allowed,
• 20:08
  Speaker 7: but you just had to dress up and look nice.
• 20:10
  Speaker 7: But we got initiated with only like two months into
• 20:13
  Speaker 7: the year, so it wasn't that long. But I always
• 20:16
  Speaker 7: remember that leading up and like girls being really nervous
• 20:19
  Speaker 7: if they didn't dress up, Not that anything would have happened,
• 20:21
  Speaker 7: but we were all like nervous about what could happen
• 20:24
  Speaker 7: if we didn't dress up, and if we would get
• 20:25
  Speaker 7: in trouble or whatnot. I remember the day of initiation
• 20:30
  Speaker 7: was the Sunday after a huge football game at my school,
• 20:34
  Speaker 7: so I remember everyone honestly just kind of dreading it
• 20:36
  Speaker 7: like obviously it's a big deal to get initiated because
• 20:40
  Speaker 7: you're like finally into your swarty and like it's all
• 20:43
  Speaker 7: real and sealed. But I just remember everyone being really
• 20:45
  Speaker 7: hungover and having a really early start time, so no
• 20:48
  Speaker 7: one was really that excited about it. You also had
• 20:50
  Speaker 7: to get to the house really early and stay even
• 20:53
  Speaker 7: if your group was like at the very end. So
• 20:55
  Speaker 7: I remember just my group being at the very end,
• 20:58
  Speaker 7: but I remember being at the end, and then finally
• 21:01
  Speaker 7: it was my turn to go, and I remember they
• 21:04
  Speaker 7: made a mess up with my big because I had
• 21:07
  Speaker 7: a really close friend in my swarty and they thought
• 21:09
  Speaker 7: she was my big the entire time leading up to it,
• 21:12
  Speaker 7: I guess, so my Big wasn't there to get me
• 21:15
  Speaker 7: initiated because they didn't tell her to be there for
• 21:18
  Speaker 7: that time because they didn't know I was in the group.
• 21:20
  Speaker 7: So a random person initiated me, which was like a
• 21:23
  Speaker 7: bummer because it was always supposed to be a big
• 21:25
  Speaker 7: and that was kind of the whole like special part
• 21:27
  Speaker 7: of it. So I remember being really weirded out about that,
• 21:30
  Speaker 7: but it was fine. I was somebody didn't know, but
• 21:33
  Speaker 7: it was nothing crazy. I remember getting blindfolded and we
• 21:37
  Speaker 7: had to wear ritual whites. We had to be in
• 21:39
  Speaker 7: a white dress, and we had to wear socks with
• 21:41
  Speaker 7: no logos, which is so random, not thinking about it.
• 21:44
  Speaker 7: And then you couldn't have makeup on, so you had
• 21:47
  Speaker 7: to be in your ritual whites with socks and no makeup.
• 21:50
  Speaker 7: And then you would put on a robe in a blindfold,
• 21:54
  Speaker 7: but you would get like walked into this room and
• 21:57
  Speaker 7: it was dark, and then you'd have to like kneel
• 21:59
  Speaker 7: down on a pillow, and then I just remember them
• 22:02
  Speaker 7: really just reading something to me. The whole time.
• 22:05
  Speaker 6: They were just reading, and then they'd like walk you
• 22:07
  Speaker 6: in a circle, and I think they like tapped on
• 22:10
  Speaker 6: her head or something. But then we like did a
• 22:13
  Speaker 6: lot of standing up and then kneeling down on the pillow,
• 22:16
  Speaker 6: but it wasn't that much standing up. But later on,
• 22:19
  Speaker 6: after all this was over, I remember hearing that once
• 22:23
  Speaker 6: I left the house and everything, one of the girls
• 22:25
  Speaker 6: in a different group passed out during initiation because I
• 22:29
  Speaker 6: guess her knees locked, which thinking back, I'm like, we
• 22:32
  Speaker 6: weren't even standing for that long, so I don't really
• 22:34
  Speaker 6: know how that would have happened. But they had to
• 22:36
  Speaker 6: like stop that whole group, and obviously everyone's blind folds
• 22:40
  Speaker 6: came off, so I just can't even like imagine what
• 22:43
  Speaker 6: that group was like. But I remember her knees locked
• 22:45
  Speaker 6: and she passed out, so they had to like stop
• 22:47
  Speaker 6: the whole thing, which is just wild. But she was fine,
• 22:51
  Speaker 6: Like I think she was just dehydrated, probably because of
• 22:53
  Speaker 6: the day before was a big party day with game
• 22:56
  Speaker 6: day and everything, and everyone was exhausted, so I think
• 22:59
  Speaker 6: her knees just locked and passed out. But yeah, definitely
• 23:01
  Speaker 6: not great. I do remember I was actually in charge
• 23:06
  Speaker 6: or like assisting to being in charge of like ritual
• 23:10
  Speaker 6: the following year, when I was a sophomore, I was
• 23:12
  Speaker 6: like the assistant ritual person and so pretty much the
• 23:17
  Speaker 6: initiation was my only job, and I actually got a
• 23:22
  Speaker 6: work opportunity, so I left that weekend, and my sorority
• 23:25
  Speaker 6: was really strict on excuses from all the rituals and
• 23:30
  Speaker 6: especial initiation, so I was like the only person allowed
• 23:33
  Speaker 6: to not go, which was really ironic because it was
• 23:35
  Speaker 6: literally my only job. But I remember all of my
• 23:38
  Speaker 6: friends being pissed because they all had to go and
• 23:41
  Speaker 6: sit there for like ten hours all day while I
• 23:44
  Speaker 6: was not even in town and it was like my
• 23:46
  Speaker 6: only job. So yeah, I remember that also, So I
• 23:49
  Speaker 6: never actually was on the other side of initiation because
• 23:52
  Speaker 6: then we would always get excused from it when we
• 23:54
  Speaker 6: were older, just because they wouldn't need juniors and seniors there.
• 23:58
  Speaker 6: So I never really got to see it from the outside.
• 23:59
  Speaker 6: But I feel like because we got to take our
• 24:01
  Speaker 6: blindfolds off, like at the very end of it.
• 24:03
  Speaker 12: I like knew what it was.
• 24:06
  Speaker 5: But yeah, I think.
• 24:07
  Speaker 12: That's my initiation story.
• 24:23
  Speaker 13: So basically there's not much that I can necessarily recall
• 24:28
  Speaker 13: from initiation. I feel like for me, at least, my sorority,
• 24:31
  Speaker 13: which I will not disclose, is very sort of known
• 24:34
  Speaker 13: to be like the Chill Sorority sort of the more
• 24:37
  Speaker 13: like Granola Sorority almost, And I think with that, like
• 24:41
  Speaker 13: all of our rituals that we do are so unplanned
• 24:45
  Speaker 13: or last minute done. And so I remember, at least
• 24:48
  Speaker 13: when I was a freshman getting initiated, I had no
• 24:52
  Speaker 13: idea what was going on, obviously because you are freshman
• 24:54
  Speaker 13: and you're not supposed to know. But then once I
• 24:56
  Speaker 13: was a sophomore, like rehearsing the whole entire little like
• 25:00
  Speaker 13: ritual in the morning, we all did it so last minute,
• 25:03
  Speaker 13: and it was so disorganized, and I like had no
• 25:06
  Speaker 13: idea as a freshman how much of a sort of
• 25:09
  Speaker 13: like flop it was, because you think it has to
• 25:11
  Speaker 13: be this like big, sort of rehearsed, you know, elusive,
• 25:15
  Speaker 13: secretive event, and it really just was not that at all.
• 25:18
  Speaker 13: I remember like people were laughing when they were singing
• 25:22
  Speaker 13: like a song. That was one of our parts is
• 25:23
  Speaker 13: we have to like sing a song. We're all basically
• 25:26
  Speaker 13: in these robes and we have to sing a song
• 25:29
  Speaker 13: while these girls are getting initiated, and then we start
• 25:32
  Speaker 13: having to hum the exact song the whole entire time,
• 25:35
  Speaker 13: and we're humming for about ten to fifteen minutes. So
• 25:38
  Speaker 13: that was always very interesting because we would hear so
• 25:40
  Speaker 13: many girls just like chuckling and laughing the whole time.
• 25:44
  Speaker 13: But to set the scene for a freshman or for
• 25:47
  Speaker 13: a new member that's just getting newly initiated. What was
• 25:51
  Speaker 13: hard for us was that our initiation always happened to
• 25:55
  Speaker 13: be the Sunday following Halloween, so it was always Hallowekend,
• 26:00
  Speaker 13: and it was always that Sunday, so everyone was just
• 26:02
  Speaker 13: like immensely hungover, but we all come to the house
• 26:06
  Speaker 13: bright and early in the morning at like eight am,
• 26:09
  Speaker 13: I believe, and we all have to come in and
• 26:11
  Speaker 13: they told us to wear a white dress and then
• 26:14
  Speaker 13: nude undergarments. And it was so strange to me as
• 26:17
  Speaker 13: a freshman, because I was like, why are these like
• 26:20
  Speaker 13: girls telling me to wear nude underwear?
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: What are they gonna do?
• 26:23
  Speaker 13: Like, are we gonna like undress in front of them
• 26:26
  Speaker 13: and we need to wear nude? It was like terrifying me.
• 26:28
  Speaker 13: But we show up to the house and we're in
• 26:30
  Speaker 13: our white dresses and best believe, I have my nude
• 26:33
  Speaker 13: undergarments on, and then we go upstairs into like the
• 26:37
  Speaker 13: girl's rooms. We had this like big room that fit
• 26:40
  Speaker 13: like ten people, and so we all just changed in
• 26:42
  Speaker 13: there into these like robes, and so they weren't like
• 26:47
  Speaker 13: cute little like bath robes necessarily, it was like a
• 26:51
  Speaker 13: not even we call them robes, but they were more
• 26:53
  Speaker 13: like togas or it looked like like a bed sheet.
• 26:55
  Speaker 13: It was just pure white like sheet on us. And
• 26:59
  Speaker 13: then a chord that we had to tie a specific way,
• 27:02
  Speaker 13: and none of us really tied it correctly, but it
• 27:04
  Speaker 13: was like we had to tie the chord to the
• 27:06
  Speaker 13: left and then once you get initiated, you had to
• 27:09
  Speaker 13: shift it to the right. And so it made sense
• 27:11
  Speaker 13: that they had asked us to wear new to undergarments
• 27:13
  Speaker 13: in kind of a weird way, because I guess they
• 27:15
  Speaker 13: couldn't disclose, like, yeah, you guys are gonna put on
• 27:17
  Speaker 13: these little like bed sheets. But made sense because I
• 27:20
  Speaker 13: did see a girl that had like red lace underwear
• 27:22
  Speaker 13: and you could very much see that through the little
• 27:25
  Speaker 13: thin rope, so that was interesting. And there's like parents
• 27:28
  Speaker 13: there and advisors and everything like that, so it was
• 27:30
  Speaker 13: funny that she was a little bit exposed. But then
• 27:33
  Speaker 13: we walked down in line with our bigs, and our
• 27:37
  Speaker 13: bigs walk us down, and then suddenly we hear everyone
• 27:40
  Speaker 13: like in a circle. The lights are off in the
• 27:42
  Speaker 13: chapped room, there's like candles, and they're singing one of
• 27:44
  Speaker 13: the like songs of our sorority, and it's so it
• 27:48
  Speaker 13: feels so like mysterious and almost kind of scary or
• 27:51
  Speaker 13: like something out of like like Scream Queens, the way
• 27:54
  Speaker 13: they do their like rituals. And so then they start
• 27:58
  Speaker 13: saying all this random stuff like sort of you know,
• 28:01
  Speaker 13: devouting yourself as a sister, like reading off of this speech,
• 28:05
  Speaker 13: and then we all go down and like get on
• 28:08
  Speaker 13: our knees and we write like on a signature on
• 28:11
  Speaker 13: this little book, just our name and that we're getting initiated,
• 28:13
  Speaker 13: and then we do like a little secret handshake with
• 28:16
  Speaker 13: the girl that is initiating us. So it was all
• 28:19
  Speaker 13: very funny to me as a freshman, and even as
• 28:23
  Speaker 13: a sophomore and as a junior too. It was always
• 28:26
  Speaker 13: so funny to be on the other side as well,
• 28:28
  Speaker 13: because you're just humming for like ten minutes straight while
• 28:32
  Speaker 13: you're watching these hungover girls kneel down and sign a
• 28:35
  Speaker 13: little book, and so it just was so funny because
• 28:39
  Speaker 13: you just get so tired of it and people are
• 28:41
  Speaker 13: humming terribly, or people are hungover. I had a friend
• 28:44
  Speaker 13: who last year was so hungover from Halloweken that she
• 28:47
  Speaker 13: had to walk out of initiation and then we could
• 28:50
  Speaker 13: hear her throwing up in the bathroom next door, and
• 28:52
  Speaker 13: then she just came back and acted like nothing happened
• 28:56
  Speaker 13: and like our advisors didn't bat and I or anything,
• 28:59
  Speaker 13: and then just kept singing the song. So yeah, I
• 29:02
  Speaker 13: think it's super super weird. Sometimes on the bright side,
• 29:07
  Speaker 13: I think that my sorority all has this sort of
• 29:09
  Speaker 13: like consensus that it's weird and it's a tradition and
• 29:13
  Speaker 13: we have to keep it up even though it's kind
• 29:15
  Speaker 13: of funny, although sometimes maybe we should have taken it
• 29:18
  Speaker 13: a little bit more seriously. I think we sharpen up
• 29:21
  Speaker 13: when the advisors are paying attention. But it definitely is
• 29:24
  Speaker 13: like a very interesting experience. Had you told me I,
• 29:27
  Speaker 13: like four years ago would be undressing in nude undergarments
• 29:31
  Speaker 13: and putting on a robe to like kneel in front
• 29:33
  Speaker 13: of like one hundred and fifty girls, I would be
• 29:36
  Speaker 13: really confused. But you know, love my sorority, and it's
• 29:40
  Speaker 13: such a fun experience but very funny moment nonetheless.
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: And that was only the beginning. If you thought that
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: was intense, just wait because what happens next makes everything
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: you just heard sound like a warm up.