Winter Quarter had gotten off to a rough start. Ever since I had broken things off with
Brian, I tried to just throw myself into my studies. That worked to a certain extent but, it
didn't fill the void. Whitney, my best
friend, tried cheering me up by reminding me that LSM Rush was coming. I could care less. I knew we had been waiting since the fall to
join Cal Poly's Christian Fraternity, Alpha Gamma Omega, as Little Sisters but,
I was just plain melancholy. The night
of the first Rush event had all of our friends from the dorms buzzing. "I bet there will be some really cute
guys there Nikki!" Whitney
teasingly said. "It is a fraternity you know." Whatever, I'd still go but I just wanted the
whole thing to be over with.
After donning my spiffiest duds, I met up with some of my
other friends who were rushing and hopped into Kelly's SUV. Luckily she had a car. The rest of us had shown up at college
without one. Packed in like sardines, we
all raced over to the AGO House to begin the first night of LSM Rush. Much to my surprise, it was all so wonderful
and my heart began to soften as I was quickly reminded of why I had wanted to
join this group in the first place. The
girls were all older and so nice. I
could also tell immediately that they were genuine in their faith, encouraging
and exactly who I wanted to surround myself with. The guys were just the same and as Whitney
had predicted, they were cute too-an added bonus. I knew immediately that this is where I could
land for my years at Cal Poly and feel like I was part of a family. That night I shook off my disappointment and decided,
no matter what, this is where I belong.
I was definitely going to rush LSM.
* * * *
Winter Quarter had just gotten busier. In between studying for my full load of
classes and all of the reading they required, I was fitting in AGO Initiate duties (girls were called Initiates,
not pledges). This included me having
meetings, lovingly called One-on-Ones, with all twenty of the LSM girls and at
least ten of the AGO guys. In the
meantime, I was also taking weekly tests about AGO history, learning member
names, the Greek Alphabet (which I already knew-ha!) and cataloguing all sorts
of other pertinent information into my brain.
Even though it was busy, I was having so much fun.
One of these nights I went over to my Big Sister's house for
dinner. Stephanie had already been such
a great Big Sis, buying me fun little gifts, writing me encouraging notes and
just being a wonderful friend. I loved
her instantly and felt so lucky that I'd been chosen for her. After dinner we decided to walk downtown since
she and her roommates lived within walking distance and San Luis Obispo's
famous Farmer's Market was happening that night. On our way, we stopped in at the AGO House to
see if anyone wanted to go with us.
As usual, the downstairs common area was full of guys all
looking for something to do. While we
were rustling up a group of people, out walked our Initiate Liaison Steve, with
a gallon of milk in one hand and a witty comeback to one of the guys in his
other hand. I hadn't ever really noticed
him before but for some reason, he really caught my attention this time. He was really funny. It took a little while for everyone to get
ready to go but that was okay. Steve was
being hilarious and had encapsulated the
room's attention. Mine included. Once we were all ready to go, I whispered to
Steph, "That's Steve Dauphin right?!"
She smiled and answered, "Yeah, isn't he funny?" All I could think to respond was,
"Yes! He's so animated." Little did I know at the time, that he had
heard me.
On the walk downtown, he melted into the crowd just messing
around and being silly. But after that
night, I began to notice that funny guy a little bit more. He wasn't just another face in the sea of
incredible guys. In my mind's eye, I
kept seeing him with that silly grin on his face, holding the gallon of milk and
for some reason, whenever I did, I couldn't keep from smiling.
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