Catharine So I thought I would share a story that makes me happy just to think about, and perhaps gives a little window into our lives.
I arrived on campus for New Student Orientation (NSO) at the small liberal arts college I was about to start attending, and had one primary objective on my mind: I wanted to find a husband.
You might consider it sad, but it’s true. This was a very important thing on my mind.
Because I wanted to share my faith with a future partner, I wanted to meet a Christian. So I looked up EVERY SINGLE ONE of the events on campus for Christian groups during NSO. I didn’t go to ALL of them , but I attended a lot of them. I also had my eyes open at other non-religious oriented events, because… you never know.
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I attended a panel of some kind- like, we were all sitting in an auditorium, and there were current students up on stage. I have literally no idea what was being said, or exactly what it was about. But one of the students on stage made eye contact with me. I just had this feeling that he was the one, and I think he knew it too. It was Lyle* (*name changed to protect the identity of this innocent person).
So I looked at Lyle. He looked at me. Was it fate? It sure felt like it.
It couldn’t have been so easy.
I think it was that night that the on-campus Intervarsity Christian student group held its first meeting of the year. It was upstairs in this giant, old, grand building that looked to be straight out of Hogwarts. There were probably 30-40 people there- coming from a church at home that had maybe three people my age, this was mind blowing!! And someone was playing the cello! It just felt like home, like I was going to be ok in college. I met a lot of people. One of them was the cellist. He was tall. I made a mental note, as I tried to remember the names of people I met- “Alex= tall.”
I went back to my dorm, and the next day, I believe, was an event called the “All Christian Picnic.” It was for all the Christian groups at once! Perfect!
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So I arrived, late, as was usual for me. Lyle was there! He was already sitting among the students in a big oval of maybe 50 students. I walked up on the porch of the home the picnic was being held at, there were trays of food. As I started to serve myself, someone else came up on the porch too- it was the cellist from the night before. Alex! We said hi. I remembered his name (good job me!) and we walked down to the large oval, and sat next to each other, in clear view of Lyle. I made brief eye contact with Lyle. We both looked away. Act cool, act cool.
So I talked with Alex. He seemed nice and was friendly. He saw my shirt, which said “Defy Gravity,” and asked if it was an allusion to physics. No! It was from the musical, “Wicked!” So we chatted about that, and realized that we both loved science and music (I was labeled a biology major at the time, and he would later minor in physics- and we’re both musicians- I play the piano).
I admit that I was extra charming, partly because I wanted to make Lyle jealous, and to look like I was hitting it off with Alex. I wanted to be a sunbeam, and I really was happy.
…..
Guess who I married?
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He remembers the picnic as the first time we met. I remember the worship service. To his credit, it was crowded.
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So I really did meet my future husband the very first day of NSO. I didn’t realize it for a few years, but he was there.
(I’ve written Part 2 of our story here.)
