It is a dark day for you, all of you who are not involved in a social club.

Tonight is what is known as Bid Night. The popular, interesting and wanted sophomores have all been selected by the popular, interesting and wanted juniors and seniors who already made it into the brother or sisterhood of the hierarchy of ACU community, the social clubs.

Sophomores select their chosen club from among the clubs who will accept them. Thus they embark on the experience of a lifetime: pledging.

Pledging is a time of fun-filled activities, community building and overflowing energy for five full weeks. And all non-pledges and non-club members can only watch greedily from afar.

You, the one identified and recognized by your personality rather than social club, we pity you. You will be forced into situations so unfair we can barely speak of them.

You are unwelcome at the late-night and early-morning pledging activities where your friends will find themselves more often than not. Bored with your free time, you are left with no other option than to get a good night’s sleep.

Future Siggies get out of talking in class or to the press during their days of silence. GATA girls will mock you by constantly reminding you what they want to be. Kojie pledges will make you ashamed to walk past the extravagant “Kojie Park” and a clock in the Bible Building you never knew was a cuckoo clock. Now, you realize, all along you’ve been the cuckoo.

Trojan wannabes show off their arm strength as they lug their rocks from class to class, proving you the inferior in muscle power. GSP and Galaxy pledges celebrate how well they use their free time with their sharp dress, ensuring that you know your t-shirt and shorts, though much more comfortable in the 90-degree weather, just aren’t as fly.

You will have to pick out your clothes each morning, knowing all the while the pledges won’t have this problem until sometime in November.

It is a long, sad, painful five weeks to be you.

All pledges can be identified with brief visual observation, reminding you of the great amounts in club dues they have paid and will continue to pay.

They will remind you that whether they have this kind of spending money, they will be required to pay the hundreds of dollars each semester or else be kicked out of the tight-knit brother or sisterhood.
You will watch friends continue to get in better physical shape from their long, frequent physical activities of which they are forbidden to speak.

The burden of choosing your Facebook profile picture will be completely up to you; no one will be able to tell you to make it one concerning pledging, your club’s nearest rush or Sing Song theme. You will have no club. You will only have you.

Today is only the beginning. Prepare to see some of your closest friends become brothers and sisters with completely random strangers, people with whom they will now spend much of their time. Rather than willingly hang out with friends from the first year of college, they will be required to spend time with unknown persons.

It is a dark time to be you, indeed.