Hello!
I hope you’re all doing well. I know I’m still alive, but I’m struggling through my stats class, so I’ve been busy because I haven’t taken a math class in a year.
Today, I thought I would open up about my big, since I gave her a sorority paddle this week. For those of you who don’t know, that is a real thing (I didn’t think there was such a thing as a paddle, nor do I know what they do with it), and how it works is that the Little will design the Big a paddle, and the Little will get a family jersey. Both are meant to be symbolic of the Big-Little relationship.
So I went and designed my Big her paddles. I actually ended up designing two, because my idea for the original paddle was a bit peculiar, so I wanted to have a backup just in case she hated the original.
Pan Themed Paddle
The first paddle is a painted pan. The reason for that is because the theme I chose for the paddle was Disney’s Tangled, because on one of the first nights out with my Big, she told me that The Little Mermaid and Tangled were two Disney movies that stood out to her. If you’ve seen Tangled, you would know that the frying pan is the weapon of choice for Rapunzel and Eugene.
So instead of going out and buying her a wooden paddle and decorating it like a normal person, I went atypical and went out to buy a frying pan. Then I painted it, which was a bit hard because the paint didn’t want to stay on (which is my excuse as to why Rapunzel and Pascal don’t look 120%) and neither did the letters. But it’s okay, because I used Modge Podge and it fixed both problems (my person and chameleon still looked slightly odd, though).
The second paddle is Moana themed, after the latest Disney Princess movie has come out. I figured that this was fitting because my Big is currently in love with this movie. In addition to that, the movie is so new that I didn’t find any ideas from Pinterest, so this paddle is truly the first of its kind.
How Was I Going To Surprise Her?
After seeing how other sisters presented their paddles, it seemed like these things could be super simple or super complex, like a real proposal or how some people would get super elaborate with the Prom-posals. I wanted it to be special, but I didn’t want to go overboard. After all, I felt like my paddle was unique, but it’s more symbolic than it is art gallery worthy.
Having this paddle was starting to eat at me. It had been done for over two months, and I hadn’t figured out the best way to give them to her. Fortunately for me, she brought up the perfect opportunity for me (unintentionally) to give her the Tangled paddle.
Something that we connected on when I was still trying to guess who she was is that, one night, there was a social planned, and I signed up not completely sure what a social was. For the record, a socials are like mixers between two Greek organizations. She messaged me on Facebook, and we both agreed that we wished that we were home.
So, this time when a social popped up, I texted her if she wanted to hang out somewhere instead of going, since we both like to be in bed at a reasonable hour. She said that she would love to, and that we should go paint pottery at a place that she knew.
I figured that this was the perfect opportunity, since I painted a pan and that was her paddle. So the day of, I called the pottery painting place and asked if they could help me surprise her. They agreed to, and I drove out to give them the paddle before going to Big’s apartment to meet up with her.
How Did She Like It?
So I met Big at her apartment, and after hanging around for a bit, we left for the pottery place. When we got there, I could see through the window that they had set up the paddle on a table with a cute little pottery display.
We walked inside, and one of the employees saw me and escorted us to the table with the paddle. As Big is looking at the pan on the table, I say in a pitchy voice (because I’m nervous about her reaction, “Surprise! It’s your paddle.”
Her reaction was, “Ohhhh, yay! I was gonna literally be like ‘That is so cute’ and ask you (she acknowledged the employee) where is this? Like I don’t see this.” And then she gave me a hug and said thank you.
So she loved it. And then at one point she’s like “I’m done with you” (full of love though) because then she figured that I had to drive 20 minutes back and forth to get the paddle there before we went together. And that’s when I decided to tell her that there was a second paddle for her in my car, which is when she said (with love) “I’m so over you.”
Needless to say it, but she loved them both.
Love Always,
Kristi My
Kristi My Dao 