In the Beginning

At the university my husband and I attended, freshmen start a week early for Orientation, to help them get to know the school and the area and start to feel comfortable with these new lives of theirs. One of the dozens of events is a gathering of all the activities and groups available on campus. Sophomores are drafted for these, presumably because they have the best memories of how they felt as freshmen.

I was there with the Protestant chaplain and this cute guy was there with ROTC. At some point he wandered over and started to talk to us. Mostly to the chaplain, because I was completely turned off by his military uniform. The Vietnam War was still on and I had no interest in anyone even vaguely connected to it. Besides that, the uniform was ugly.

But he hung around and the longer he talked, the more curious I became, and I finally granted him the favor of my attention.

My husband suggested this topic when I was trying to think of something to write about this week. But after suggesting it he said, "No, you won't get it right." So here's his version:

ROTC was not popular at that time, but we were trying to talk it up. I noticed a very pretty girl across the room and mentioned it to one of my fellow cadets. Boys being boys, significant teasing ensued while I mustered up enough courage to go over and introduce myself. It didn't help that she was obviously Protestant and I was Catholic.

Thinking that going into battle might be easier, I wandered over and attempted to engage her in conversation. The attempt was short-lived, saved only by the efforts of the chaplain. She couldn't be less interested. Her expression said, "Look what just crawled out from under some rock."

After crawling back to my friends, I eventually decided to give it another try. Later in the week I visited the office where she worked part-time. This meeting went a little better since I wasn't in uniform and had a chance to dazzle her with my conversational skills.

We've discussed our different memories and can't agree--we're both sure we're right, as usual.

But it doesn't really matter. No matter how it started, the end result was the same.