Keeping Up With the Kaune's: Rush Week

This week starts the University of South Carolina-Aiken's rush week! I am a Phi Mu alumna and I serve as an advisor for my chapter. I have always loved rush week. It's stressful but it's so much fun! The picture below was taken in 2005, on the first night of rush. I was vice president at the time. I am loving our outfits, bahahaha. At the time the song "poppin my collar" was all the rage and you weren't cool unless you wore your collar popped.

I have so many fond memories of rush but here are my favs:

1. Our president's hair caught on fire during pref night. Luckily she was not hurt. It was not funny at the time but now it's hilarious.

2. We were told by our advisor that we could not sing a song that had the word "hell" in it during traditions night. My sister Laney who is very sweet and a devout southern baptist blurted out in the most innocent voice "we can't say hell? But hell is in the bible!"

3. Mean girl moment but funny moment: A girl comes through recruitment who's last name is Roach. She has very bad BO and does nothing but talk about her cat the entire time. During voting my sister Amber says "somebody needs to call pest control because the roach has got to go."

Here is another fav picture from rush week. This is me with my sisters Jaclyn and Catherine. Jaclyn and I worked at a tanning salon together, can you tell? A little too much fake and bake going on, but I still love this pic!

The Greek community is just plain amazing. My cousin Jack just started his freshmen year at Auburn. He has accepted his bid to Lambda Chi Alpha and I am so excited. The Lambda Chi guys at USCA were awesome and several of them were close friends of mine in college. I was reminded of a night where they really had my back. My boyfriend of over a year had just broken up with me and had been cheating on me. My ex was not Greek but would act like he was considering joining so he could mooch off the free booze at the frat parties. I was at the Lambda Chi house for a party when my friend Matt called my cell phone to warn me that my ex was headed to the party with his new girl. I tried to stay cool but as soon as he walked in with the new girl on his arm, I felt my eyes well up and quickly retreated to the bathroom with my sister Catherine. She talked me through everything and I calmed down and returned to the party. However, as soon as I walked back out, I was told by several of my sisters that my ex had been asked to leave the party by Lambda Chi's president, my good friend Jason. Jason told me that he and his brothers had always wondered what a good girl like me was doing with a loser like that and they would much rather have me enjoy myself without having to worry about my douchebag ex. I will never forget how they had my back that night. Even though I am sure part of the reason they did it was so he wouldn't drink up all their beer again...lol.

In all seriousness though, going Greek changed my life. It wasn't just about the parties and the fun times.To this day, my favorite part of being in Phi Mu was our philanthropy, Children's Miracle Network. I loved volunteering up at the hospital. As Phi Mu's philanthropy chair I raised more more money than any other chair in my chapter at the time through fundraisers such as "Bowl for CMN" and "Pennies for Patients." I learned valuable leadership skills. I became inspired to get involved with other organizations on campus.

Being a Phi Mu is also very special to me because my Nana was a Phi Mu at Duke University. I am very honored to be a legacy. My great-grandmother was a member of Zeta Tau Alpha so I definately had a hard decision to go through when I went through recruitment. There was something about Phi Mu that just stood out to me more, although I know some great girls who are in ZTA.

Best of all, I gained a group of best friends, a group of sisters who love me and will have my back forever. I love these girls with all of my heart.