The Ups and Downs of Big-Little Week

Lauren Ritter
Phi Sigma Sigma

Being a founding member of my sorority, I never had the opportunity to experience a Big-Little relationship. I have a sapphire twin instead, so I was able to go through the process with someone as my buddy, rather than my mentor/guide. So, I knew from the start that as soon as Phi Sigma Sigma took its Spring ’12 pledge class, I wanted to be a Big. I’m a strong believer that every person should have a mentor in some capacity, so, naturally, I wanted to be that guiding force for one of our new little pledglings (I just made that word up, but that’s okay).

One of the downsides of having such a large pledge class this semester — 65 total! — was that I felt I didn’t know enough of the girls to be able to pref someone. I hate to say it, but I know I’m not the best sorority girl in that I’m not able to go to a lot of the major group events. Therefore, getting to know my newest sisters was a bit of a challenge for me. However, one of the coolest things we’ve done this semester, in my opinion, was matching up actives and new girls in “Sigma Sister” pairs. We were able to act as pre-bigs and mentors to the newest additions to the pyramid. Luckily, I was paired up with the coolest girl in this semester’s pledge class. Sound a tad biased? Well, that’s okay because that awesome Sigma Sister is now my Little!

As soon as I met Nicole, I knew I liked her —which isn’t always the case when people are thrown into situations like that. We had the same off-beat sense of humor and love for the outdoors, as well as the shared philosophy that you should eat dessert before dinner once in a while and live on the wild side. I was smitten and knew from our first cheesecake outing to Aladdin’s that I wanted Nicole as my Little. However, I know my experience was not shared by all of my sisters. While I got the Little I preffed, some of my sisters found themselves paired with girls they had never met before. So this Big-Little experience was not only new and hopefully exciting, for some girls it was even mildly stressful.

One of my sisters said she didn’t really know who her Little was when she was initially matched up, so instead of being an fun process as it was for me, she found herself feeling more stressed out than excited. Big-Little week is by no means a walk in the park. As a Big, it is our job to spoil our Little with presents and decorate their rooms during the week. But, as a full-time student with projects, prelims and homework due every other day, it’s hard to manage everything. Crafting and surprising one of the new girls that you like is fun, according to my sister Ceren, but with classes and group meetings every day, making Big-Little Week a top priority can be rough. So, while the week is supposed to be fun, it can actually turn out to be stressful and incredibly time consuming.

While I admit I already have a love-hate relationship with my sleep schedule, staying up an extra hour or two (or three…) to make gifts for my Little was definitely worth it. Some of my sisters even  “accidentally” pulled an all-nighter crafting one night, making decorations for their Littles’ rooms. While that wasn’t the original plan, they said they didn’t regret staying up all night because they got to spend time with their sisters while they made cute things that they knew their Littles would love.

When I made gifts for my Little, I didn’t want to be the stereotypical Big who bought tons of monogrammed sorority items, chocolate and glassware. I like to pride myself on my ability to think outside of the box, so I really tried to brainstorm crafty ways to impress my Little. I ended up settling on doing a different theme for each day, with the first night being a tiny Elmo bookbag filled with trail mix bars, a disposable camera, sunglasses and a water bottle. Nicole loves hiking, so I made her hiking pack filled with all the essentials. While my little-kid inspired present might have looked silly sitting next to large gift baskets of monogrammed towels and chocolate, my Little said she absolutely loved it! Knowing that I gave her something she would use and could enjoy, I was so excited for day two of gift giving. The following days of gifts were equally inspired, showcasing a travel bag filled with things should would need when she goes away for Spring Break and an assortment of coffee, tea and cider for when she’s studying at night. I wanted Nicole to know that I made the effort to find time to talk to her best friend (or as Haley would agree, co-conspirator) or creep her Facebook profile from my sneaky alias account (read: Myheartandsoul MylittleNicole) all in the hopes of finding out exactly what she likes, which incidentally includes baseball hats, SEC football and Twizzlers.

All of the hard work I put into Big-Little Week was well worth it. My sister Ana agreed that making gifts for our Littles was an extremely rewarding experience.

“I was so happy to make all of the things for my Little,” she said. “I made a painting, letters, you name it. It all payed off when I saw her face on Reveal. She was so thrilled to finally know who I was and so was I!”

Reveal was my favorite part of the entire week because like Ana said, nothing can compare to seeing how excited the Littles were to finally meet their Bigs. I don’t think I could stop smiling or hugging Nicole after I told her I was her Big. We were both so excited! Now that the week is over, I won’t have an excuse to stay up til 4 a.m. cutting out snowflakes or making dinosaur shaped cookies, but that doesn’t mean I won’t still surprise my Little from time to time with crafts and cookies. I’m can’t wait to start going on Big-Little adventures and building a relationship with my new little sister.