Big Little Week!!!

Going through Rush, sorority terminology and structure quite honestly went over my head. I wasn’t really sure what a ‘fam’, ‘twin’, ‘Big’ or ‘littlest’ was, I just knew they somehow tied back to the ‘Big/Little’ system.

For those of you, who in spite of American movie watching, have not grasped what a Big/Little is, let me explain. Each new member of a sorority gets assigned a Big aka Big Sister who acts a mentor/friend/generally awesome person to you, their ‘Little’. A ‘fam’ refers to the series of Bigs and Littles who are all interconnected, aka my Big has a Big who has a Big and we all make a family!

So we’ve figured out what Bigs and Littles are, why are they such a big deal? One of the best things about being in a sorority is the community you are a part of, a group of friends joined in ‘sisterhood’. Your ‘fam’ becomes a smaller, more intimate version of that community. Getting a Big is so special because you not only become a part of this close-knit group, but you get your very own ‘sister’ to look out for you, share fun times and love. Needless to say we were all very excited to get our ‘Bigs’.

After getting to know the sophomores (mainly) in Zeta, we got to ‘pref’ aka rank the girls we would most like to be our Big, and future Bigs did the same for us (yes, more ranking, sororities love it!). From there comes Big/Little week, quite possible the best week ever! This week has our Bigs arrange gift baskets, performances and special treats for us (anonymously) until the big reveal when we officially become Bigs and Littles!

Some of us had no idea who our Bigs were, and were left wondering all week. This wasn’t the case for me. I had met and fallen in love with Katyln at the very beginning of rush and I knew we both wanted to become each other’s little and Big respectively.

Though for some of us there may have embarrassing photos dug up and plastered over Facebook it was such a fun week! Frat pledges (aka their new members) had to trek through the snowstorm to drop off cookies, chocolates, Zeta t-shirts, party gear, movies, magazines, lollies (sorry candy), Zeta cups etc. Some of the more unfortunate frat pledges (or less fortunate depending on your perception) sang for us or gave performances.

There were spoilt, excited future Littles everywhere!

Speaking of spoilt... my Big went above and beyond this week. She is super talented and artsy, and so in addition to all my sugary treats, shirts, beautiful notes and much more, she spent hours creating master pieces. A Zeta banner with a glow in the dark galaxy, bejeweled cups and mugs, canvases with Zeta mottos, ‘bedazzled’ ZTA letters…the list goes on. The ‘piece de resistance’ was an esky (or cooler for you Americans) hand painted (a very sorority thing). When I say hand painted, I mean flowers, initials, personal messages, colours, swirls, jellyfish…it was sensational!

Reveal today saw girls discovering who were their Bigs for the very first time. There were photos, hugging, embarrassing presentations on Littles from Bigs…

Big/Little was a really welcoming, exciting and bonding experience. To my new ‘Insanifam’ I love you already, and I can’t wait to be your ‘littlest’ member. Finally, a huge shout out to my spectacular Big:

Katlyn, I loved you from our first meeting and it is a privilege to be your little sister. Bring on the years of laughter, support and unequivocal friendship!

ZLAM!!

(My Big and I!)

Do you want to build a snowman?

“Severe Weather Warning” flashed the headlines on Duke Today, this Wednesday. Winter is coming. It was a tad dramatic given all we were to receive was a few inches of snow, but the South is just not equipped to deal with any form of snowstorm.

And south did the snow go, with the snow hitting us here in North Carolina, but also Atlanta and even New Orleans dropped below freezing.

We waited anxiously all afternoon, hoping that it would deliver as promised. But at 7pm when I went to rehearsals there wasn’t anything of note. I felt a little cheated to be honest. Never fear! Emerging out of rehearsals at 10pm Duke had literally turned into a Winter Wonderland! Snow swirled around the air, the ground was coated in brilliantly white snow, and Duke chapel looked ethereal in the storm.

Plans of jumping on a bus out of the cold vanished immediately. My friend Jessica and I took cheesy photos in the snow, (she’s from Florida so was equally excited). I take full credit for starting the snowball fight. After our fingers were blue, and we were so coated in snow we might has well have been polar bears we shivered our way to East campus. What did we find on the main quad? A freshman snowball fight!

As it turns out, my snowballing skills are minimal.

The rest of the evening East campus echoed with the sounds of procrastinating college students getting creative with the snow. Plastic bag sledding, snow angels, snowball fights, powdery snowmen – every thing and anything. Some extremely intelligent decided to run around, and even roll around in the snow shirtless. Obviously we girls couldn’t be beat, so with swimming tops on we followed suit. I would like to provide a shout out for the guy who threw a startlingly well aimed snowball at my bare back. Apparently you’re a football player, if so kudos, I understand why we had such a good season.

But the absolute best part was having a hot shower, watching “Frozen” in the common room and then going to sleep with the blissful knowledge that my 8:45am class had been cancelled. Scratch that, waking up to a message determining that ALL classes had been cancelled was nothing short of brilliant.

My very first snow day ever, snowballs, tea, “Frozen” and cancelled classes.

Thank you North Carolina!