By Abigail Cantwell
Being a Division 1 student-athlete means balancing a full class schedule while dedicating over thirty hours a week to your sport—no easy feat. I am often overwhelmed by the work of being on the Tulane University Women’s golf team thus if a psychic had told me I would rush a business fraternity (as a non-business major) that required as many hours of commitment as AKPsi does, I would have told them they were deranged.
After being dragged to rush by one of my best friends and eventual fellow member of the Alpha Epsilon pledge class, I was immediately blown away by the caliber of the brothers and their phenomenal networking skills. As each night of rush continued, I became more and more impressed with the organization and, furthermore, felt I was surrounded by a group of people with whom I could see myself making meaningful connections. When I found out I was selected, I was elated—to say the least. I am not going to lie and say that it was easy to do everything because that would be far from the truth. Pledge meetings on Wednesdays normally ran past 11 PM and the next morning we had 6 AM workouts. Even with the hours of sleep lost, never once did I doubt if it was worth it. The brothers cooperated with me to work around my practice schedule to complete all my interviews. My pledge mates allowed me to join them with their interviews and, in a few short weeks, I felt such a sense of belonging with the members of the Pi Chi chapter. My golf actually interested the brothers and, in many cases, was a source of common ground.
I also noticed a change in my relationships with my authority figures in athletics. Each week I would learn more about professionalism and this helped in my communication with my coaches or the administrative members of the athletic department. I no longer sent casual emails to the authority figures in my life and this did not go unnoticed. After spending hours a week interviewing brothers, I improved my communication skills as well. I had always found it awkward to find common ground for conversations with my coaches who are twice my age.
After having to start up conversations with people I had never met but awkwardly knew everything about, due to Facebook stalking them to obtain an interview, I had a plethora of go-to small talk conversations to use with my coaches. The time sacrifice was trivial compared to what I got out of pledging AKPsi. The people I met and opportunities I received by being part of the organization undoubtedly changed my life forever. I look forward to being a brother next semester and giving back to the fraternity in any way I can. This is the least I could do since it has given so much to me.
