It was April 2nd, 2022. I had deep cleaned my room after getting a new comforter and wanted everything to look super organized and such, which isn’t the usual state of my room! My parents, who were emailed in advance by the chapter board of Twos AZA #2, letting my parents know the entire plan, totally thought I suspected what was to come the next morning. Boy, were they wrong! I had no idea what in the world “kidnaps” were. I got in bed like normal and went to sleep. All of a sudden, my lights were turned on, I was being untucked from my bed and just about 30 Alephs had entered my room. Oh, and it was 5 in the morning! I can’t exactly remember what the Alephs told me other than that I was being taken to breakfast, and had 5 minutes to get ready. Confused, I got up, looked at my mom in disbelief and utter confusion, put some mascara on, and got into Miller Brown’s car, a family friend of ours, and started to ask questions. Since it was so early in the morning, I don’t quite remember exactly what I asked him, but I do remember him offering me a Nutri-Grain bar, and telling me that I was “kidnapped” because I was being nominated to be the Twos AZA Sweetheart! A sweetheart is very similar to a fraternity sweetheart, where a female-identifying member is picked to go to their events; in BBYO, it works the same. I was one of the first BBGs to be woken up, which was exciting because that would mean I would get to witness the Alephs picking up the other nominees. After everyone was picked up, we headed to iHop, where the Alephs paid for our breakfasts, added us to their GroupMe as members of their chapter, and then headed home. A few weeks later, the nominees headed to the Jewish Community Center to be interviewed with very strange questions by the members of the chapter. While I enjoyed the process of becoming the potential sweetheart, I wasn’t as close to the Alephs as some of the other nominees were, and I wasn’t picked. 

After having such a great time with Twos AZA, I brought up the idea to my chapter, Saadia, to have a chapter sleepover at some point this semester and “kidnap” a few potential beau candidates. A beau is the male-identifying equivalent of a sweetheart! Everyone loved the idea. We quickly began to look at the chapter rosters of the Alephs in our area and made a list of the ones we wanted to nominate. After voting on who we wanted to nominate, it was time to email their parents with all of the information, ensuring that we had their permission and that they’d keep their door unlocked until we got there to get their son! We couldn’t wait until November 11th, the night of the chapter sleepover, and the next morning, the morning of the “kidnaps”! All of the BBG’s had the best time at the sleepover, eating yummy snacks, laughing, and catching up with each other in addition to a few members we hadn’t seen in a while. It was so much fun. We set our alarms for 4:40 A.M. and headed to bed for just a few hours! It was finally the morning and it was time to get out the door and onto the pickups! The 8 Alephs we had selected lived either pretty far north or south, so we had to get an early start! Each Aleph was so surprised, none of them had any idea. The confusion on all of their faces was truly priceless. We decided as a chapter that we would take them to First Watch for breakfast, rather than iHop. Within the next few weeks, we will get to observe how our nominees attend and act at our upcoming programs, and then we will interview them and select a final candidate to be our beau until they graduate from high school and BBYO. Overall, the long-standing tradition of early morning wake-ups is such a fun tradition that truly brings us together!