Going off to college can be tough. Leaving your family and friends behind to begin your adventure of higher education can quickly become overwhelming. Young women and men arrive on campus with the intention of getting a fresh start. While freshmen are busy packing their belongings for college, fraternities and sororities are strategically planning their rush events. Rush is the period of time where college students interested in Greek life get to go and meet the members of their school's sororities and fraternities. Once you go through rush, you get to pick your top Greek groups that you want to be part of. Expressing interest in these groups will put your name in to receive a bid. The waiting time of when a Greek group chooses you is anxiety-ridden but also exhilarating. The time has come - it's bid day! You cross your fingers hoping that your favorite group chooses you to become its next member. Congrats! You got a bid to your group of choice! You go to accept it and formally become a tentative member of the group. But it's not official yet, you have to go through a process of secretly pledging your loyalty to the group. Before you go through this difficult process, you get a BIG. For those who aren't familiar with Greek life, your big sibling picks you as their "prodigy" so to speak. They become your mentor and help guide you through school, social matters, family drama, and most importantly: pledging. Most of us find that our bigs become our best friends. Here's why.
1. They have been in your exact position before.
For most littles, our bigs share similar interests that we do. My big is a history / psychology double major with a minor in sociology. Those are the same things that I am studying. She plays lacrosse, works at a bar, and loves our sorority. She is younger than I am (since I joined my sorority a little late) but has already been through the pledge process. During my time pledging, she helped me make it through and still keep my grades on top. She helped me through assignments (both for our sorority and for school), she stayed up late with me and talked me out of quitting when I thought I couldn't go through it anymore, and she watched me succeed.
2. They love you no matter what.
Your big sibling is your family. No matter how badly you mess up, they are right there with a mop helping you clean it up. During your pledge process and beyond that, your big is there for you every step of the way. Often times, my big would spend the night on my couch when we were up late doing homework that I couldn't do during the day. On my last day of pledging, she took me out to breakfast as a celebratory "you did it! Now go get some sleep!"
3. Your big will do the nicest things for you, even if they're small.
My big had a whole reveal planned out for me. We went to Lake Tippecanoe as a group for a retreat. My pledge class arrived two hours after the elder members did. When my big saw me, she ran up to me and hugged me. Her reveal was blown because she was so excited to have me in the group. She removed her sunflower from her hair and put it in mine, symbolizing my entrance into the sisterhood. She gave me a box full of things with our sorority letters on it. The box is something I can use forever: it has the year I joined and my sister name on it. I keep it on my dresser on display in my room because it means everything to me.
