Guin & Arwen - AllegianceBIGGIE: Guinivir Lopez
smalls: Arwen Dema-ala Fam: Allegiance Name: Guinivir Lopez Major (+Minor): PharmD Fam: Allegiance Describe your relationship with your BIGGIE/smalls: Arwen's my sister. It's kind of scary how similar we are to each other but it's always interesting to find out more similarities between us as we go forward. When we're together it's always a fun time but when we need each other, we're always there for each other. To sum up our relationship, it's just real. I love how we can be very honest with each other and call each other out whenever it's necessary. We have our chaotic dysfunctional moments, but we also have our bonding moments that go deep and personal (with maybe a few tears shed here and there). I love our dynamic of being able to thrive individually by ourselves without seeing each other for a while but then come back together like we never missed a beat! We keep each other grounded and make sure we stay true to ourselves. Like if this isn't what sisters are like then I don't know how to describe us What's something you've learned from your BIGGIE/smalls?: Hm this is actually kind of hard to pinpoint. I feel like I'm always learning something from Arwen everytime we're together which I believe comes from our age difference. Being with Arwen just helps me reflect on myself and my past. Helping her overcome her obstacles by talking with her about similar obstacles I went through feels like I'm healing my past self. While I've been learning to not feel guilt and how to grow from little me, Arwen has taught me how to not just accept but to love little me despite any negative feelings I may have of my past experiences. What's your favorite memory with your BIGGIE/smalls?: My favorite memory with Arwen is definitely Reveal! It was such a chaotic weekend personally and socially and just watching everything unfold was definitely surreal. From actively throwing her off for the whole week, building up the tension and letting her ride the rollercoaster to the reactions she had when she found out her fam and the moment she opened her presents... it's just an iconic moment between the two of us. She probably hates me for it but it's okay. You only get picked up once in your life. Name: Arwen Dema-ala Major (+Minor): Media and Screen Studies (Music Industry and Marketing) Fam: Allegiance Describe your relationship with your BIGGIE/smalls: I'm very lucky to have Guin as my big. Our relationship is exactly what I was looking for from BiggieSmalls. I call her my ate cause she is genuinely the older sister I never had. When I first met Guin (which many people don't know was the first day of school because a few people thought I was her sister/cousin lol) she explained to me what BIGGIE/smalls was, and every time the topic came up she always emphasized that the program was a mentorship program. But I would argue that although she passes on to me her sage wisdom; our relationship is much more than a mentorship; she's my older sister. She introduced me to the Barkada world and made me feel welcomed and like family since my first day in Boston. I was terrified of being in a new city where I had absolutely no family or support system. Guin gave me exactly that. What's something you've learned from your BIGGIE/smalls?: From my relationship with Guin I have learned the importance of BIGGIE/smalls. Especially when you are very new to college and the BKD community, a BIGGIE/smalls relationship can be one of the greatest things. Guin and I have one of the bigger age gaps between a BIGGIE/smalls pairing but I think that it is one of the best parts of our pairing. She has been able to use her experiences to impart wisdom from what she has learned herself over the past 5 years. Although she will be leaving me next December and I have no idea what I'm going to do without her, I am confident that all the lessons she has taught me will stay with me forever. What's your favorite memory with your BIGGIE/smalls?: Probably just our BIGGIE/smalls origin story cause its low key destiny ngl. So to be very clear Guin and I are NOT related. She is my uncle's wife's cousin's friend's daughter. You know when you get into college and every time that someone hear's where you are going they're like "Oh I know someone who goes there you two should talk" and then you nod politely and say, "sure" not intending to do anything about it. Well that happened to me A LOT. But the one time that the person actually reached out it was Guin. We planned to hang out the first day of orientation and she showed me all of her favorite spots of Boston. And from then on she was my mentor evern before I applied from BIGGIE/smalls. I don't think I ever realized that Guin could be my big because she essentially convinced me that she wasn't (s/o Justin). A week before pick up I asked her "Does your big have to be only a year older than you?" to which she replied "Nope." Therefore I started to realize with the help of Clara that Guin could possibly be my big. But Guin preceded to tell me things such as "I think if I pick up a smalls it needs to take a really specific person." and "For Allegiance pick-ups the big pretty much knows from Day 1 who their smalls is." This is when I started to believe that it wasn't going to be her and tried thinking of every other possible person who I could be paired with. It didn't help that Justin, Inigo, and Esme all helped her trick me into believing it wasn't going to be her. This included elaborate FaceTime calls, misleading messenger conversations, confusingly random follow requests from someone I've never met, and even on the day of pick-up clues that led me to the wrong person. This is all to say that my meeting Guin was meant to be and every day I am reminded more and more of this fact.
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