15 years ago

Fifteen years ago in August I was 18 and a college freshman. Before school even started I have moved into the dorms to go through sorority rush and start marching band practices. (Yes, I was in both a sorority and the marching band) Being in marching band you automatically "meet" about 250 people--all majors, all backgrounds, from freshmen up to 5th year grad students. A lot of practicing is done by instrument, and then by rank--a group of 8-10 people who march together.

In my rank there were 5 guys (one of them also a freshman who I knew) and 6 girls (one of them a good friend of my older sister's, and one of them was TJ's roommate--a fact we happened to figure out earlier this year). One of the guys also happened to be my future husband.

I didn't know it right away; of course as a freshman I came to college with a boyfriend back home still in high school. Needless to say, we didn't stay together very long after I started college. Part of it had to do with the fact that we were totally different (I was dating a "bad boy" type at that time) and maybe part of it had to do with someone I met in band. Just maybe. Of course I thought this band guy was cute, but in the band/engineer nerd sort of way. We started dating a few months into school and the rest is history. Three years later we were engaged, four years later we were married, and now fifteen years later here we are.

The whole family, including my parents, were driving by the dorms where I lived as a freshman yesterday on our way to a Cyclone event. As I was reminiscing saying, "Fifteen years ago I met John", Emma pipes up from her seat and asks "Did you like John when you first met him?" The rest of the van errupted into laughter--I don't know if I ever did answer her question.

Emma--the answer is, "Yes, I did like John when I first met him. And I still like him now."