I'm Not Special

Hell Week

I week, initiation week, hell week. It's all the same thing, the final step to become an active member of a Sorority or Fraternity. Your foot is in the door and this is the final step. The "week" part of my hell week was fine, scavenger hunts and other activities. But the weekend was the real hell.

Friday night I came home from work without a care in the world. I knew it was hell week, but no one knew where I lived. I hadn't told anyone or brought anyone to the house all pledge semester.

I heard rumors of girls getting kidnapped for hell week, but I felt safe. I had just sat down on my bed to watch tv with Max when the doorbell rang. I knew right away, they had found me. I was given three minutes to gather my things before being blindfolded and put in a car.

Let hell week really begin! Now, you're never supposed to tell what happens to you during initiation. It's a sacred ritual that bonds you with your sisters. All the girls before you went through it and all the girls after will. But bonds weaken over time, so here's what happened.

I'm in a car blindfolded, but I can hear Lily and the other girls talking. They take me to a grocery store, which when blindfolded is bright and smells like bread. Yes, they walked me through the store with my blindfold on, I hung on for dear life to whoever was next to me.

Then back in the car and up some stairs to an apartment. Still blindfolded I was sat on the ground with my back against a bed. Then the music started, it was the Greek alphabet in the most annoying high pitch voice. It went on and on and on. I remember trying to keep track of time by counting while the song play, but it was too loud and hard to focus.  Anytime I would slouch someone would straighten my back, which frightened me, I didn't realize I wasn't alone. I don't know how long I sat there in the dark listening to the god awful song. An hour tops, but my back hurt and my ass was numb.

Then someone got me up and brought me in the next room and took off my blindfold. All the active members were in this little apartment. They were making food acting like the hadn't just dragged me from my house.

I saw a dazed Mary and hugged her. We were next to each other the rest of the night. At one point Lily read me a letter while all the girl stood around us. We were sitting Infront of a mirror while she read, I knelt in front of her. It was very cultish, but I was joining a cult. 

After that the actives took Mary and I to Winterland campus. We were blindfolded and had to answer questions about the Sorority before they un blindfolded us. Then we had a scavenger  hunt the rest of the freezing night all around the campus grounds.  sleep deposition is like being drunk. everything is funny at one point and then you're crying the next moment. Mary and I held each other on a bench crying while waiting for our next clue, the fun part had wore off. 

When the sun came up a few girls return to get us. Lastly we took a written test. I remember the girls all talking next to the table we where at, and my sleep deprived mind couldn't come up with all the answers.

Finally we were told we made it through. Both Mary and I cried. I was dropped off at my house and had to go to work at the portrait studio. I was so tired I couldn't even ring people out or sale. I got in a lot of trouble at work for showing up that way, but I didn't know this was going to happen. I think they thought I was drunk. That was my Hell week, ending with almost getting fired.  

Now lets talk about the Hell weeks that I was active. I had a large house and two years in a row I hosted the girls for Hell week. The first year, instead of having the girls sit blindfolded listening to the Greek alphabet,  we put all seven in my bathtub and shut the sliding glass door.  We put on the alphabet and turned off the lights. They were stuck in there for about an hour, climbing over each other and lay on top of each other to trying and fit. 

The next year we left them blindfolded and took them to the basement to sit on the cement with only a beam to support their backs. The music was blasting and if a girls slouched we would correct her posture, classic hazing technique. 

After we would usually take them outside to my backyard or a park and make them do physical activities, like running or jumping jacks. One year there was a climbing wall at the park and we made the girls go over it multiple times. It was always cold out making the experience even harder. You could always tag your pledge sister and do her physical activities for her. Active would yell, "Your sister needs help! Why aren't you helping her?" 

We would blindfold them and take them to the university and quiz them while they had to stand on a ledge. Then they would go on the traditional scavenger hunt, but in a car not by foot.

One year on day two we took them to a mall and made them go talk to boys while we told them to act certain weird ways, like making big hand gestures or saying "like" every other word. We did this to embarrass them.

Then it would be time to get their active pins, showing they had made it through. Blindfolds back on and we would take them up a hiking hill to a lake. There they got their pins frozen in an ice cube. Active members just got regular ice cubes. Everyone would take their shirts off and melt the ice cubes on their chest over their hearts.

The girls would be so excited to have gotten their pins. I drove home multiple girls beside themselves with joy for becoming active. I never saw the harm of Hell week. Why would I? I went through it, every girl before me went through it. But every year we made it a little harder. Girls always thought their year was the hardest. I know mine wasn't.

But I recognize the problem, it's like abuse you don't always realize it when you're surrounded by it. If everyone is doing it, it doesn't seem wrong. Yes the purpose of Hell week was to traumatize them. That's how it works. Mary and I were so bonded I was in her wedding. For me it was a small price to pay for sisterhood. After my hell week I felt stronger, which I needed because I was still living with Max.

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