Once again MTV has raised the bar on reality television. Their hit show \Sorority Life"" is the new craze on late night TV. Whether you love or hate the pledges and sisters of Sigma, there is no denying the addictiveness of the show. Tonight at 9:30 p.m. the pledge process will be over and we will have to say good-bye to Jordan, Candace, Mara, Amanda, DeDe and Jessica. But before they go, The Daily Cardinal caught up with Mara at home in Maryland on her summer vacation.
Daily Cardinal: Where are you this morning? Are you in Davis?
Mara: No, I'm in Maryland, I'm still home. We don't start school actually until the 26th so I'm home for another week and a half.
DC: That's pretty nice.
M: Yeah, but it's getting long. [laughs]
DC: How does it feel now that it's all over and behind you?
M: I feel good about it. I think everything turned out for the best and I think the experience was amazing. We had a lot of fun, there were some hard times too, but we had a good time so I feel good about it.
DC: Would you do it again if you had to?
M: I don't know, I think that being a pledge and being low in the pecking order is not really too much fun. I think that doing it once was probably enough for me, yeah, I don't know if I'd do it again.
DC: Are you watching now on TV or not because you lived it?
M: I watch it, it's like a big event at my house, my mom calls it MTV Monday. We all watch it together which was pretty special on my 21st birthday episode. It was great. But yeah, I watch them. Religiously, I watch them.
DC: Is this an accurate depiction of your personalities or is anything been distorted?
M: I think that it's been pretty accurate, to me the only thing that's really been missing is that we're college students: we go to class and I don't think that's ever on the show. We rarely do homework on the show, we never go to class or like the library or anything and we actually did all those things and studied and stuff like that. If I had to say that something was missing that's the only thing: school, jobs, that kind of thing, community service. All of that stuff was happening and you can't really tell from the show. But as far as our personalities go, I think that it was pretty accurate and they did a really good job.
DC: In the first episode you said you didn't think you would make it on the show, why was that?
M: I actually missed like three out of the four rush events so I didn't think they would give me a bid because I didn't make it to any of the stuff so when they asked the question I was just like ""I don't know, I don't think so."" So, that was why.
DC: Why did you pick Sigma?
M: I picked Sigma because not many sororities have spring rush and also Davis doesn't really have a large Jewish community at all. I had a feeling that that was something missing from my life at school. We all are third year students, we have our friends, we have our social groups, we have our activities that we do, we have jobs, and that kind of thing. But I thought having a group of women to go to Temple with or to do whatever, that was something that was missing and I was thinking that Sigma would be a good way of doing that. Also, when I met the girls, they all were very, very kind and they seem to really have a unity that they talked about so much that was really there and was tangible in the very beginning. You know, who wouldn't want to be a part of that? So, those are my reasons for picking Sigma.
DC: Did that unity fall apart as it went on with the MTV involvement?
M: I don't think that it fell apart. I think that within the sisterhood it was always there, I think that having MTV there made it really hard to express that to a bunch of new people whose motives you doubted. It was weird that girls who went to Catholic high school, girls who still went to church were now pledging this Jewish sorority. I think that took everybody back a little bit, but I don't think that was a lack of unity that was just ""how do we incorporate these people into what we already have when what we already have is so strong and this has never happened before.""
DC: Do you think that any of the girls pledged just because of MTV?
M: I'm pretty sure there were girls who pledged because of MTV, but I'd rather not say who.
DC: I understand that. How did MTV go about picking who got to be in the pledge house?
M: You had to say if you if you wanted to live in the house or not, but I think that there were a lot of people who did want to live in the house, but I don't know what that decision came down to. I was called and asked if I wanted to live there, but when I moved in I had no idea who else was moving in. So, I don't know how that was decided.
DC: Is there any airtime jealousy? Because we see Jordan every week and we hardly ever see Dede.
M: Dede doesn't care, I don't think, I talked to her yesterday actually and I think that Dede is a very private person more so than the rest of us. I think that Dede had a lot of stuff going on in here life during the time when this was filmed, you know her uncle and all the things that are shown briefly. Dede also wants to be in the FBI and she doesn't want to be on camera drinking or anything like that. I think that she's fine with it. As far as jealousy goes, I don't think that anybody else would have any complaints. For the rest of us it's been pretty even for the most part. I don't know. [laughs]
DC: Have you been back to Davis since this has been airing?
M: Nooo. No.
DC: How has it been in your hometown? Do you get recognized and people saying ""Hey that's Mara from MTV?""
M: Yeah, I have a lot of people who come up to me and say stuff. It's mostly been all positive and it's mostly little kids, well not little kids, but like thirteen and fourteen-junior high to high school. The one thing that I hope these little girls take away from this is that ""Yes, you are a women and yes, you should go to college. Maybe not so much the drinking and that kind of thing, but..."" Yeah, I get recognized which was surprising and I was kind of taken aback when I got back home how many people know who I am and people who really feel like they know me and that's kind of strange, but it's been nice.
DC: Are you hesitant to go back to Davis?
M: Yeah, I'm a little bit hesitant. I think it's definitely going to be a really different experience being in Davis this year and it's a really small community so I'm sure that it will be different, but we'll have fun. We'll be fine.
DC: Can you tell us a little bit more about Vegas? We didn't get to see much of that.
M: Yeah, I know, I was kind of bummed about that. We had a really good time in Vegas. We went out dancing a lot, hung out. We just were out of Davis for a little while which was really nice. ... We had a really good time in Vegas and I'm sad that more of that didn't get across. It wasn't all stressful and yelling, we had really good times together too.
DC: Did anybody win any money?
M: We didn't gamble.
DC: Vegas and no gambling?
M: Well, you can't gamble on camera. So no gambling, only strippers and who needs to gamble when you got naked men?
DC: How do you think the whole experience would have been different without MTV there?
M: I think that everything would have been different. I think that when you put a group of 40 women together and you put emphasis on six of them there are going to be problems and there's going to be drama and there's going to be jealousy. And I can understand that. If I wasn't living in the house I would have been bitter and jealous. I think that sucks to single out six girls out of a pledge class of 14. I think it all would have been different. I don't know if it necessarily would have been for the best that it would have been different or for the worse, but I think that definitely it would have turned out differently.
DC: Was it hard with the cameras there or did you forget that they were there?
M: Well, [laughs] based on the fact that I was eating spaghetti with my hands for half of the last episode, I'd say that I forgot that the cameras were there because my mom was like ""ew, that's so gross"" and I was like ""sorry mommy."" But in the beginning it was really hard, it was hard to think because everything I said I was like ""Oh my god, the entire nation might hear this"" so it was kind of off and it was weird, when you talk to other people they're weird, when you go out at night there's a spotlight, it's just weird. But toward the end, you forget they're there because they're constantly there and you forget to kind of guard what you say which is where I think a lot of people not just on our show, but all shows get into trouble because you forget that they are there and you say something about someone and you forget that's going to be replayed later, then you watch it again and you're like ""Oh, man I can't believe I said that out loud"" and now they're hearing it.
DC: Is there anything you're embarrassed about now when you are watching it on TV?
M: The entire episode of my 21st birthday was embarrassing. [laughs] That was bad. But, other than that, not really. ... Overall I think that it's fine. I got over it. Whatever happened is done. It was fun, I had a good time, obviously.
DC: Do you still keep in touch with the other girls?
M: Yeah, I still talk with Jessica and Jordan and Dede. Amanda and I never really hit it off from the beginning so I don't talk to her anymore. I talked to Candace for a little while, and now she like dropped off the face of the earth, I don't know where she is. She and I haven't talked for about a month, but we were talking. I don't know how it will be when we go back, I think depending on how it is in Davis, the six of us could completely just like bond together again.
DC: Were you friends with the other pledges?
M: I was friends with most of the other pledges, actually. I think that it was hard for them to want to hang out in the house and if you're not living with the cameras, it's really hard to get used to them, it's hard to want to be in that environment often or ever. I was close with them and I don't think that really shows in the show as much, but yeah, we were close. And I still talk to them, too.
DC: Did they ever do anymore of those ""all girls in the house for the weekend"" or was it just that one episode?
M: Thank god no. It was just that one episode. It was three nights during the school week and it was not fun. You know, 14 girls and one bathroom was just misery.
DC: And arts and crafts weren't that much fun?
M: Yeah, if I was good at arts and crafts I would love to do it, but I'm not, I'm horrible at it. It's not fun for me. Everything I make is ugly, it's sad.
DC: Yeah, I try to stay away from them too. Is there anything we should watch out for in this last episode?
M: I don't think so. Hopefully, it'll be good and it will be entertaining at least.
DC: Well, we've all been entertained so far.
M: It was a little slow to pick up, but once it got going, man.
DC: Everyone I tell to watch it gets hooked after one episode.
M: It's so weird because I feel this show is so addictive. Everybody tells me that ""I watch one and now I have to watch them all because I have to see if you guys make it."" I'm like ""okay, whatever.""
DC: Are you going to watch the second season in February?
M: I'll probably watch it, I really want to watch ""Fraternity Life"" [laughs] I know it's sounds so stupid, but I really want to see it. But yeah, I'll probably watch, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't going to. Now that we've done it there's going to be comparison between the girls. What are they going to be like, I know what we were like.
DC: You've guys have done everything, I don't know what new girls can accomplish in their season.
M: Well, it's like ""Road Rules,"" you know. It'll be fine.""
