The Perfect Match

With rumors of a date event flourishing in the new members’ group chat, all I could think about was a scene from the movie “Sydney White,” when the new members had fifteen minutes to find a random date for a date dash. Fortunately, this is Austin, Texas, not Hollywood. With a week in advance and no official word of when the date dash would actually be, many girls invited dates so they wouldn’t be scrambling the day of. Because I am an out-of-stater, I didn't have any guy friends I could just casually invite, so I decided to wait until the date event was officially announced. At a chapter meeting one Monday, one could feel all of the new members’ nerves and questions running through their minds: is the date dash tomorrow? Is it happening at all? Will there be a theme? No one knew for sure since everything was based off of previous rumors, but sure enough, a post on our pledge class Facebook group alerted us that the rumors were true; we had exactly 24 hours to find our perfect match.

            Excitement filled the room as everyone asked their prospective dates, and started coordinating themes. While girls started talking about the perfect matching outfit, all I could think about was who was I going to ask. My friends helped me decide on who to ask and the planning begun. After many failed ideas of creative matching outfits to fit the theme of “twins,” my date and I decided to do matching Texas jerseys, since that was the only thing both of us had. A group of girls that lived in my building piled into my room to get ready that night; every mirror and plug were taken as the music and laughter grew louder as time went on. We were having so much fun we almost forgot it was time to meet our dates and head to the party. Eventually, when I walked into the event with my friends and our dates, we were greeted by seniors who looked excited to see us and welcomed us with those famous Zeta hugs.

            The best part about the date event was not finding a date, planning an outfit or getting ready with friends, but the opportunity to meet other girls outside of my own PC. I met so many girls who were so friendly and inclusive. Now walking around campus I can recognize girls outside of my pledge class without having to read the letters on their shirt. I wanted to join Greek life because coming from out of state I wanted to find my place at UT. At the end of the night, I realized that the date dash helped me see that Zeta Tau Alpha is my perfect match here at UT!

ZLAM

Elisabeth Carpenter PC ‘15