Last week kicked off the beginning of my second big/little week as a Kappa Kappa Gamma. I’ve spent the month since bid day depleting the on-campus meal plans of my chapter’s new members in an attempt to get to know the girls who had my sisters giddy during rush. Somewhere in the flurry of new faces and social media followers I fell in love. Out of fifty plus new girls, my soon to be little and I ended up together late one Thursday night, and as we navigated crowds within a dirty fraternity house and sought refuge from the cold walk home in an eight-dollar cab ride, I could feel a rush crush setting in. I caught myself obsessing over of her potentially joining my family, working her name into conversations with my big, and haunted by the possibility that another girl in my pledge class could steal her from me in the weeks before big/little. 

As my grand-big, big and I waited for a text from our New Member Chair this past Thursday night, the text that would relay who the newest member in our family would be, I was more anxious than I ever could have imagined. And then came the confirmation that my crush had become my little, and the smile and excitement stemming from the news has yet to fade. The magnitude of the girls in my pledge class’s collective enthusiasm, while endearing, is not necessarily ideal as the new girls are not supposed to know the identity of their big until the reveal later this week.

 Having my sorority’s formal the day after finding out my little definitely didn’t make keeping this secret any easier. I noticed a trend across my pledge class as we all gravitated to the sides of our soon to be littles-meeting their dates, introducing them to all of our friends and, of course, dragging them into the photo booth.

 Although this past weekend I learned that subtlety may not be a strong suite of mine I did make it through the night, and the past month, without concretely ruining the surprise for my little. Despite the four photo booth pictures of us at formal tucked into my desk drawer, I limited myself to excitedly discussing the coming weeks activities solely with my date, who naturally was sworn to secrecy. I may not be quite as stealthy as I would have liked but, until Thursday, my lips are certainly sealed.