Ten Years

Ten years ago, Darrell asked me to be his girlfriend. It's probably one of the best things I've ever said "yes" to (behind, of course, to saying "yes" when he proposed). My roommate was pretty surprised; I'd spent the majority of my freshman year of college hung up on my high school boyfriend (who I broke up with because I didn't want to do a long-distance relationship), and had subsequently turned down a handful of other potential boyfriends because they also had the potential to turn into long-distance relationships. Dating a senior (who I barely knew) who had plans to return to his home state of North Carolina after graduation didn't exactly promise safety from a long-distance relationship. When my roommate (rightfully) questioned my decision, I told her that I had decided I was done worrying about the long-term prospects of potential boyfriends: Darrell made me happy and we had fun together, and as long as that remained the case I didn't see any reason not to be his girlfriend. I think it's safe to say he still makes me plenty happy and we still have plenty of fun together.

And--just for fun--here's our little story of how we went from barely knowing each other to boyfriend/girlfriend in a matter of weeks.

Sometime in early October, the dorm we lived in (called a "Manor"--it had two floors, boys downstairs and girls upstairs, with a common area in the middle) had a house meeting.

Ernst Manor 2005--Where the magic began

I knew of Darrell; my roommate knew his roommate and she had told me one time that "Phil's roommate is pretty cute but he's too short for me", but that was about it. Well, at the meeting it came up that I played soccer, which caused Darrell and me to strike up a conversation because he had played soccer in high school. Either at that meeting or sometime later in passing, I mentioned that we had a home soccer game coming up Homecoming weekend (October 15th) and that he should come. And he did.

Thankfully for both of us, he disappeared before the end of the game--which meant I never knew (until awhile later) what he and Phil ended up doing that night for Homecoming, and he never knew (until much later) that the people he had assumed were my dad and two brothers at the game were actually my dad, brother, and high school boyfriend.


The next ten days were a whirlwind of flirting opportunities. There were evenings goofing off in the manor, a manor Halloween party which consisted of carving pumpkins and watching Donnie Darko (during which people may have conspired to ensure Darrell and I were seated next to each other), decorating for the annual Haunted Manors, and a prank war that Darrell started against me and my roommate.

We were about all things Nerf in Ernst Manor

Pumpkin carving fun

Darrell working on his masterpiece

Acting like the monkey he is to hang spider webs for the Haunted Manor



My roommate and I swapped (some of) the furniture in Phil and Darrell's room with the furniture in the lounge to retaliate for the war they started

 On the evening of October 25th, the Charlie Brown Halloween special aired and Darrell made me watch it with him because I had never seen it. After it finished, Darrell went back to his dorm room so I could finish a lab report that was due the next morning. A short while later he came back up to my room, visibly shaken. He had just found out that a high school classmate of his had been killed overseas. We chatted for a little bit, but then he left again because he knew I needed to finish my homework. After a little bit, I sent his roommate a message via AOL instant messenger (ah, the good old days of instant messenger) to see how Darrell was doing. His roommate was confused about my concern; apparently Darrell hadn't shared the news with him and had instead simply grabbed a jacket and left the manor. Concerned, I decided to go looking for him (which Darrell claims I was motivated to do because I had feelings for him; I maintain that I would have done the same for anyone who I didn't think should be alone at the time). It was easy to determine that he hadn't gone far--his was the only NC car in the parking lot--so I hopped on my bike and started riding around campus. It didn't take too long to find him (Wartburg is a pretty small school), and after walking around campus for a little bit we walked back to my dorm room where we hung out for a little while longer before Darrell asked me to be his girlfriend (and it was technically after midnight by that time, but because we hadn't slept yet, we didn't see it as being the next day yet, so we've always celebrated our "anniversary" on the 25th).

Ten years seems like a long time, but it also feels like it has gone by incredibly fast. I look back at those pictures and feel like we have changed so much, but then in some ways I feel like we haven't changed at all. Except instead of being two college kids who are constantly goofing around and having a good time, we are parents who get to share that wild craziness with their two boys. It's a pretty darn good life I have.