To clarify, Big is sorority slang for ‘big sister.’ You see it plastered on social media and can hear the cries across campus on reveal day. I’ve heard it called an arbitrary or pointless relationship and I understand the confusion. So what, these sorority girls just pick a random person to shower them with gifts then all of sudden they’re best friends?
A big is basically your college mother.The only difference is that you didn’t live inside her womb and she takes you to fraternity houses. I remember when I met the woman who would become my big. Her hair was curled effortlessly at the ends and she had a crooked little smile that seemed to hold all the secrets of my sorority and subsequently, life. I knew I wanted to be just like her by the very way in which she carried herself. Upon meeting her, I knew that I was in the right chapter simply because she was in it.
Reveal week came and like any naïve new member I spent an embarrassing amount of time fretting about her. Was she going to bestow upon me the honor of being called her little? It seems silly now that I even wondered.
She held my hand through initiation and answered every silly question that only a new member can have. Since then, she has held my hand through every failed test, every homesick cry, and every broken heart. She laughs at me and with me. We get angry with each other sometimes, but I will always look up to her. She took me under her wing and has loved me despite every time I have failed her. Her love of my chapter has made me love it that much more.
Being in a sorority is not about the tee shirts or mixers. It is about striving for a more perfect womanhood. My big is the embodiment of my chapter and our letters. Those two things hold me to a higher standard than I often hold myself and that is something that I will always be grateful for. My big has exemplified patience, unwavering love, kindness and maturity in nearly every situation. She is quick to listen and slow to anger. She is all that my chapter stands for and everything that I hope to become.
With a smile on her face, letters across her chest, and a badge over her heart she has made me a bigger woman.
