By: Torey Barnes
As ironic as it may sound, I met my family Freshman year. My whole life people had told me that college was the time to say goodbye to family and feel the homesickness set in, hopefully meet some new friends and yada yada yada… In my opinion, those people had never experienced Big/Little reveal because I am sure that if they had shared a similar experience to my own, they would have to understand that meeting “new friends” does not even come close to the overwhelming love and friendship that my Alpha Phi family brought to me.
I had originally thought that the day I received my bid from Alpha Phi would be the happiest moment of my life as a member. In my then small-minded perspective, that was it. It had set the bar. That is until the big/little reveal, when my entire outlook of what I considered my “happiest moment” was forever changed.
On the actual day, after days of much awaited anticipation, I arrived at the Alpha Phi house where I anxiously awaited with my sisters. We got the OK and sprinted to the decorated boxes in front of the house where my big sprung out like a Jack-in-the-box. Needless to say, this surprise easily exceeded a little clown in a tin box. Not only did I feel my excitement, but I could see the excitement of all of my sisters around me as they found and expanded their own families. I smiled harder than I think I ever had in my entire life, and not just because we snapped about 1000 pictures together.
Today, almost 2 years later, my big still means everything to me, and she was everything I expected and more. Having my best friend as my twin made it even better. Suddenly, I had a family to laugh, cry, and laugh some more with, to group text “movie night tonight??” and “who wants Chik-fil-a?” all-the-while wondering how I ever didn’t know them. As more and more memories were made, I soon came to realize that there would never truly be one “happiest moment”. My entire existence as an Alpha Phi would be an ongoing collection of the happiest moments, the majority made possible because of my amazing family and the memories we shared together.
