Favorite sentimental -- the lavalier my big sister gave me on reveal night

Favorite non-sentimental -- first edition songbook I found online. It has pink and green ribbons in the center of the book that remain unfaded. They're the exact shade as my pledge ribbons and I was amazed by that small touch.

Two items:
1. The Theta-themed charm bracelet that my big gave to me. I have continued to add to it through the years and now have about 20 charms in various forms of kites, pansies, letters, crests, and even a KAO paddle.

2. "Sixty Years in Kappa Alpha Theta," a hard cover book which was published in 1930. Prices for the book online are typically $75 and higher. A member of my alumnae chapter gave me her edition, that was given to her upon pledging in 1937. On the inside cover it reads: "[alumna name], -whom we have with love and careful thought chosen-. Iota Chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta, February 20th, 1937." I love the book, but I love that particular alumna even more. I will treasure it until the day I die.

Thank you for bumping the thread.

At initiation, my big gave me a small plaque, about 2" x 4", on which she had glued a hand-carved anchor with shield.

I lost my big to breast cancer several years ago, but think of her every day when I see that anchor.

Being from a local, we don't have quite the choice of paraphenalia that the rest of you do...

I love my bid. We had a really crafty/creative sister who made these awesome "treasure map" style bids for us. It is in a scrapbook with all my pledging/recruitment stuff.

I also love my paddles...my littles did really great jobs.

But I also still have my initiation letters from my big. Again, being local, we have a slightly different set of rules, and one of ours is that we only receive letters after we have initiated, and it is the big's job to buy her little letters. Mine are this awesome blue and gold star pattern. It still fits me great.
-- Second to this is an amazing red hoodie that has little pictures of all of our traditions on the back of it, it was handed down to me from a graduating senior, and it is such a shame that it is HUGE on me now, like tent style, because I would wear it every single day.

After reading this, I just realized something funny I will never have because of how I became involved in Kappa (joining a local org which became part of Kappa): I never received a bid card to either group! Ha! How weird...

I had to go home for an orthodontist appointment the Friday after rush week and never received or signed my bid card - I never realized that people took bid cards seriously until I saw that many of my brothers keep them in their Cornerstones.

I had a bid card at one point, but I have no idea what happened to it... four moves in four years will do that. It does make me sad, though, because I like to keep EVERYTHING!

Favorite things would be a 3-way tie.

1. My bid day shirt. It's pretty much unwearable at this point because I wore so often in my first semester as a Kappa... the servers at the freshmen cafeteria used to tease me about it! It's not like it's stinky or anything, just faded and worn-looking.

2. A bone china badge box my Big gave me after Initiation. It has pretty blue irises on it and it's personalized with my initials and initiation date.

3. The lavalier my boyfriend gave me. Maybe it doesn't count because it's his letters, not mine, but it's obviously very special to me! It's been a little over a year since my candle-pass (and it's almost our four-year anniversary), and we're still going very strong. So far, so good... no "curse of the lavalier"! :p