Wolf Sisters // by Cassie and Pallavi

Six moons and twelve suns ago, it was just a joke. Something we wore to make the others jealous. Something we wore to make the others laugh. Little did we know the stars would align and our paths would merge into one and our journey would commence. It was at the Stanford Powwow that our transformation began…

The Powwow occurs every year without fail, paying respect to the local Native American community as well as Stanford’s. We’re going to stop there because the history/awesomeness of the Powwow is another tale for another night.

This fateful afternoon, we were on a mission. We wanted wolf shirts; shirts that we could cut and turn into our own creations. We bought the beads and scissors – we just needed two t-shirts with howling wolves on them. The powwow was our chance.

Cassie: “Pallavi, what about these shirts?”

Pallavi: “They’re perfect… But wait, are we allowed to cut these? What if we upset the Native American spirits?”

The Indian (Pallavi) was onto something but we shrugged it off and kept walking to see if we could find anything else that caught our eye. Little did we know, our future was waiting a couple booths over. The sweaters were literally calling our names. The last two, and they fit perfectly.

Cassie insisted on buying the wolf shirts that we had passed up earlier but Pallavi was adamant that we would somehow be cursed if we cut them. So we decided to purchase the super fly wolf jackets.

Later that night we had a team-bonding event, and obviously, Salt and Pepper showed up in their new bomb jackets. Everything was fine until later that night Pallavi heard that Cassie was violently ill. (Take note that six moons and twelve suns ago was the week before the NCAA tournament last
year). Everyone was worried because Cass was really suffering. The next day (Monday) we had a lift and Cassie was still too sick to make it. After weights, Pallavi called Cassie to see if she was okay and while still on the phone with her, Pallavi got violently ill. In unison, we said “the wolf jackets.”

In that moment we realized we were in the process of a life-changing transformation: we were joining the wolf pack.

We left for NCAAs the Wednesday of that week. Somehow we had faith that the wolf pack would guide us and give us strength to play because we hadn’t eaten or practiced in three days. It turns out that the pack was there for us when we needed it the most, and on the Sunday of that week, exactly one
week after buying the wolf jackets, we won the National Championship

The wolf sisters, as our team so fondly calls us, realized that our illness was actually a cleansing process brought on by the wolf spirits to usher us into the clan. The jackets were the only common denominator that could explain the cleanse. We hadn’t eaten any of the same meals, been with any of the same people… it was just destiny. The Tale of Two Wolves, One Pack.