Pickers Can't Be Choosers

There are many things we pick in life. Our college major. Our friends. Our clothes we wear each day. Our meals we eat. Our favorite blanket (night night!). Our Christmas list. Our drink at the bar. And sometimes even our nose. Yet none of these choices are quite as important as ROOM PICK!

Room Pick: a time designated when sorority members choose the room they want to live in for the upcoming semester. Usually two House Corporation members are present. Bump points are law… AND…. Drama is guaranteed.

With over 40 rooms to choose from between a little under 90 members, room pick can become quite a nightmare rather quickly if not managed well.

We can trace back the headache of room pick to a little piece of paper called Bump Points.

Basically, members are asked to write down their life activities from the past semester in order to be judged next to their pledge class members all in the hopes of deriving a room pick order. Some of the categories: Academics (GPA), Campus Involvement, In House Involvement, Community Service Hours, Participation in other Greek house events (philanthropy), Work, Intramurals, Collegiate Sports (Band, Cheer, Tennis), Miscellaneous.

Back in the day, Bump Points were a complete joke. You could put down absolutely anything and there was point consideration. Examples? Well, how many t-shirts you bought, when you sorted the mail on that lazy Tuesday, going out to parties (PR, duh!), DD-ing (saving lives, reputations and bad life choices, duh!), working out (Stay fit, and again—Good PR!), attending stuff that was required already (chapter, formal dinners, etc.). We always use to say that you put down every thing down on the form including every time you took a breath or pooped.

This year there was a re-vamp apparently, which attempted to control the ridiculousness of the points. It seemed sophisticated enough, but nothing will ever be a solid fix when there is a winner and a loser. Someone will always feel like their points weren’t counted correctly, or the values weren’t fairly given out to each activity. Even going by GPA only would raise questions of transfer credits, major difficulty, and the level of workload per class.

Wouldn’t it be awesome if there were a “Picking Hat?” Similar to the Harry Potter sorting hat… People put on the hat and it shouted out their room. Or, bringing it back to reality, maybe the hat idea wouldn’t be too bad. Just pick numbers out of a hat to choose your room. Talk about getting to know your sisters. Pretty sure that is just asking for someone to slit her roommate’s throat during that first test week.

This isn’t that far-fetched of an idea though. The picking hat scenario is EXACTLY what happened to me during the Fall 2010 Room Pick.

Flashback to the Spring of 2010. For some unknown reason, I had made the decision to live in house one more semester. Unconsciously, I think I was scared to live by myself, but I just pretended that I was doing my pledge class a favor by staying in house. Usually there are only a certain number of spots available for moving out… Between inactive members and seniors, House Corp was worried all of the beds wouldn’t be filled. Little did they know… That was going to be the least of their worries.

A week prior, bump points had been released and sisters began talking about their rooms of choice and roommates. The significant thing about living situations in the fall is the coveted Big/Little pair. All the bigs and littles want to live together. This particular room pick, we had an abundance of twins and bigs desiring that specific living arrangement. Problem being that there are only so many 3-girl rooms in the house.

I was number one in Bump Points for the entire house. This means I get first pick of whatever room I want. At the time, I wanted a 3-girl with two of my sophomore buddies who weren’t living with their bigs. This caused quite an upheaval among many members who were appalled I’d even imagine taking a 3-girl. But that is the beauty of Bump Points. It didn’t matter what anyone else thought or wanted. Because I was old and had busted my behind in those above-mentioned categories of Bump Points…. I received the privilege to choose the 2-girl, the 4-girl, the 5-girl, or even a desired 3-girl room.

After a week’s worth of harassment and brown nosing, I was beyond ready to walk into the French room, claim my room, and be done with it. On a Tuesday evening during Dead Week at 6:30 p.m., I did just that. I thought I was in the clear and began to do Recruitment Medley Try-outs in the conference room.

About 15 minutes, one of my assumed future roommates burst into the try-out. There was a problem. Someone had miscalculated and there weren’t going to be enough beds. Members (not just one) would have the option to move out! Did I want to go? Um, HECK NO! I don’t have a house, or roommates, or the psyche that is required to move out.

As room pick moved along, the big talkers who claimed they were ready to get on out of the house were now bowing out and staying in. I am guessing they were just as frightened with the prospect of being homeless in two weeks if a miracle housing didn’t occur.

Finally sophomores… SOPHOMORES… were given the chance to move out! Still we were one bed short for in-house members. House Corporation was completely prepared to move a bed into the Annex house and call it even. I knew this was the worst idea in the world. At the time… When a bed was added, it had no hopes of ever being removed. This meant more beds to fill in an undecided future. I knew if it came down to it… I would need to move out.

Well it came down to it…. I moved out and my decision along with some other sophomore decisions began the loosey-goosey re-picking of rooms. Women who were planning on living with girls who were now granted out-of-house did not plan on getting a rando. (Rando: someone who was not planned to live in a room with original roommates.) They insisted they should be able to change rooms and knock others out of their rooms because of Bump Points… For some mysterious reason, these requests were granted and room pick warped into a catty game of Musical Chairs.

Immediately after I uttered the words, “I’ll move out,” I regretted my choice. WHERE IN TARNATION WAS I GOING TO LIVE?!?!? I have no options for roommates in my pledge class, the houses still available this late in the semester are probably raunchy, and how am I going to finance this decision?? (Just because you move out of house does not mean you don’t continue to pay an out-of-house fee PLUS dues.) I do a complete break down. It had been awhile since I’d cried and sobbed that hard. My parents didn’t understand what had happened, but tried to reassure me that it would be fine and they would take care of it.

Before the night was over, I received a phone call from the House Manager. She said there was a bed open in house. A strange miscount had occurred… So… Would I like it? Psh, yeah! I would love to not be homeless!!!!!!!

I had naively assumed I would get my original room and that we would basically restart room pick… I mean I was #1 in Bump Points— And those are law!

Incorrect. I was so incorrect.

I became the rando that was placed in a room. A senior moving back in house with top bump points was basically treated like an insignificant freshman who was oblivious anyways. I was steamed. Who the heck was I living with? How in world did this happen? What happened to the law?

I found out I was to live with VP-Standards and her little. The only thing I knew about the little was that she loved Jesus. A lot.

Now, I am a Christian but I am also not perfect. I can get somewhat dramatic and loose my cool every now and then, which sometimes leads to words that might not be acceptable in the presence of a nun. I am also not a model sorority member. I question about everything that I think is shady and am not afraid to call out people when things are wrong. And I thought I was about to embark on a journey that involved living with the sorority rule keeper and a nun. #1 in Bump Points. Again… What the heck?!?

I wasn’t aware that those two had already switched with our suitemates. Their logic was that the suitemates would be more welcoming than the original two. This always gives me a good laugh.

This past fall I moved into a room with a very bitter attitude. I was determined not to like it. I was convinced I was about to be the poster child of Room Pick rando gone wrong. Nothing could prepare for the reality of this….

After about a week, I recognized this debacle had actually been a blessing in disguise. My roommates and I slowly warmed up to each other… Each party just as surprised as the other that we all clicked in a strange way. It was an absolute miracle.

Reflecting now in my last two weeks living with them, I couldn’t imagine any other situation for my final semester in house. They were unquestionably the perfect solution for the terrible equation room pick had been. We still joke about how we thought this would be a nightmare. We laugh even harder when we talk about how we perceived each other pre-living together. And we still wonder how this outrageous grouping ended up in friendship and bond we will all cherish.

Sometimes… Even when the odds are stacked against you and you think it is all over, everything ends up working out just like its suppose to.

I’d like to give a shout out to Jacker Crack’s one and only Mal Pal. Known for her love of Ebonics, Llamas, Pictionary, and her Uncanny ability to proof read. I shall miss her, but I’d like to pass on the 7-11 legacy to her and the new roommates. Enjoy the vents.