Perhaps I should explain our traditions for those who don’t know before I go any further….
Within our chapter of Omega Phi Alpha, we are divided into five families: Kappa, Gamma, Lambda, Chi, and Tau. When you get a big sister, the family that she is in becomes your family as well. Each family has their own animal mascot and colors as well as a family flower and family slogan. For example, I am in the Lambda family. Our animal is the giraffe, our colors are lavender and teal, our flower is the purple tulip, and our slogan is, “We tower above the rest,” which, by the way, was printed on the back of the shirts that I made for reveal. After pinning, the membership director, also the pledge mom, uses our preference sheets and interest sheets to match all of the active sisters up with their littles from the new pledge class. When she is done, she secretly lets everyone know who their little/s is/are and big little week begins! During big little week, tradition holds that the big sisters leave secret gifts for their littles. We also had an “Ophiabigsister@gmail.com” account that we could use to secretly email our littles. To me, this was the most exciting yet most stressful part. I loved being able to talk to my little during this time, but I was so afraid that I would accidentally sign my name or give away my identity in some other way. (Mei Mei said that when she read one of my messages out loud her roommate, Emily, could tell that it was me!) We also have a Big/Little dinner during the middle of Big/Little week which ends with reveal- the event that happened today! Reveal was my favorite memory from last year, and I was extremely excited for today. I was so happy that both my big, Kelly, and my grand-big, Liz, could attend. Anyway, I am getting ahead of myself…
This week I have learned that being a big sister is hard yet very rewarding. I say that it is hard because all of the things that you have to keep secret! (I almost let some things slip.) And it is so rewarding to finally be able to tell my littles how much I love them face to face and see their smiles. Family and Big/Little stuff is so much fun!
Even though I started making gifts for my littles this summer before I even knew who they were, I had a lot to finish up this week! I had their pledge books to put in the cube, the only required gift, their secret gifts, that I made mostly myself, and their reveal gifts, also mostly DIY, not to mention the Lambda family shirts that I had to take care of for everyone. Thankfully, I was able to accomplish it all! Here is a picture of the gifts that I made for my littles to put in the cube this week:
At the traditional Big/Little dinner on Wednesday at Los Reyes, I sat by one of my littles, Mei Mei. It was so hard not to give my identity as her big away! I also sat with Lauren, Sydney, Priscilla, and Brittany K., and I got to know them all a little better. (I was so happy to welcome Brittany K. into the Lambda family!)
Reveal today was amazing! I was so nervous that I had already given away my identity to my littles, which was true- they both said that they knew it was me for one reason or another- but they both still seemed very happy when I revealed to them that I was their big sister!
We held our reveal outside at the gazebo near the Social Science building. To do our reveal, all of the big sisters made flip books with five clues about themselves to give to each of their littles. All of the bigs stood on the top of the big grassy stairs while the littles came up to the bottom of the stairs one at a time and read out the clues on their flip book. The clues started out generally with classifications such as, ‘My big has blonde hair,” and became progressively more specific as they went along. As each clue was read aloud, the bigs came down a step so that by the end only one girl was left with her little!
I think that this way of revealing the bigs and littles worked really well, and it was a lot of fun for everyone. I thought that it would take longer than it did, but I am not complaining because that meant that we got to go to lunch earlier!
After reveal, we gave presents to our littles and took lots of pictures.
Then we went to lunch. The Lambda and Gamma families went to O’Charleys near campus. I had such a great time today, and I love my Omega Phi Alpha family!
I LOVE MY LITTLES, Jennifer and Mei Mei!!!
Nothin' Sweeter than ΩΦΑ 