"Shirt from Alabama. Shorts are from Shein. Earrings from Shein. Necklace, Kendra Scott. Shoes Target. Voice, gone." That's paraphrasing one of my favorite 'Bama gals on TikTok at the moment, all of whom have been taking us — TikTok voyeurs — through their #OOTDs (outfits of the day) during sorority recruitment as PNMs at the University of Alabama. If none of the previous 50 words made sense to you, stay with me, please.
When scrolling through the #BamaRush hashtag on TikTok you're met with beautiful young women eager to find forever friendship (sisterhood) while at college. You're also met with hoarse and essentially nonexistent voices. But there's a pretty simple answer to why the Bama sorority girls have no voices. Because of this. And this. Oh, and this. This. And.... this.
Whether you're a PNM (potential new member) or an active member of a house, you're going to sound like a five pack a day smoker by the end of recruitment. Why? Because you don't stop screaming for truly days at a time.
While rush is different at each school, it usually consists of a couple weeks (or weekends) of invites in which PNMs go house to house to meet the women and find their fit. To give you an idea of the intensity, the 'Bama rush schedule looks something like this:
August 4-6: Early Move-In (on-campus only)
Saturday, August 7: Convocation (morning)
Saturday, August 7: Open House (afternoon)
Sunday, August 8: Philanthropy Day I
Monday, August 9: Philanthropy Day II
Tuesday, August 10: Philanthropy Day III
Wednesday, August 11: Sisterhood Day I
Thursday, August 12: Sisterhood Day II
Friday, August 13: Sisterhood Day III
Saturday, August 14: Preference Day I
Sunday, August 15: Bid Day
The PNMs get invitations back to certain houses that want them, and come Bid Day, you get a bid. And while those invites are fun and informative and a chance for you to meet people that could very well become your best friends for life... they're also exhausting. Walking house to house in an outfit that is not at all a walking appropriate is one thing. But sitting in a large living room that has been emptied of furniture so it can fit 100 girls screaming about their major and "what they like to do for fun," well that's where the voice leaves the building. How can you impress the girl sitting two feet away from you if you don't scream at the top of your lungs, "Communications" and "hang out with my friends."
Plus, if you're an active member, you have to sing. Over and over. As seen in this video posted @crystal_leslie on TikTok, the women in houses spend many hours a day screaming some of the most ridiculous, rhyme-y, and catchy songs that will haunt their dreams for the rest of eternity. If you know, you know. (I wasn't even a Pi Phi and I still remember this song, 10 years later.)
And the louder you are, the better. You want the PNMs at the house one block away to hear you spelling out D-E-L-T-A. And you bet that these songs are rehearsed for at least a week or two before freshmen even show up at campus. What's worse, scream singing these songs to an empty porch or scream singing these songs to a group of 50 18-year-olds who don't know what to do with themselves and just stare awkwardly back at you?
Images: Screenshots from TikTok