Our Story: How We Actually Met (Part 2)

Last time, I wrote about how Carson and I sort of met. We'd been introduced and possibly interacted a little bit, but we didn't really know one another in the strictest sense. Meaning... I didn't know Carson's last name, I didn't know that he wasn't an aviation student (there are two campuses at Moody-Spokane: the Biblical Studies campus and the Hangar, where the aviation students spend most of their time. I saw Carson so little that I just assumed that he had one class on the Biblical Studies campus and was on the other for the rest of the time).

I feel like all these posts should have a disclaimer that there's going to be a lot of parenthetical add-ins and background, so you know what was going on. 

--

The first semester of school began with knowing nobody (actually, I had one friend: Haley, who was from my hometown so I knew her before I moved), and ended with a working knowledge of everyone in school. Even if I'd never talked to someone (like Carson) I had an idea of who they were, their group of friends, and minor things about them.

During the first semester, Carson was rarely seen. I was in sophomore classes and he was taking mostly freshman courses. The few upperclassmen classes he had were centered around preaching, so we never interacted.

The second semester began and suddenly, I saw Carson everywhere. He was in two of my classes: Research Writing on Wednesdays and Hermeneutics on Thursday mornings. He sat in front of my roommates and I in our Wednesday class and was VERY friendly, which we took as Carson being a friendly person. He and I were also on the school's newspaper/magazine together (he was a writer and I was "on staff"), which met every Wednesday right after chapel before our afternoon class.

My first impressions in the spirit of full disclosure, were as follows:

First, the bad: Carson rode his bike to school or would run there (a few miles away) and had shaggy hair; my roommates and I called him “the sweaty guy”. I confessed that to him later, after we were married, and I thought that he would find it funny, but I think that we was a little offended (I would be offended too, honestly). Let's just say that he wasn't a shining beacon of personal hygiene. He hiked a lot, was very outdoorsy, and earned every bit of that sweaty appearance.

Carson doesn't have Facebook, but pictures of him are on there, so I scoured it for pictures of him, just for this post... sorry for stealing your picture, Maila! Carson is in the front, wearing a hat so you can't see his great hair. 

The not-so-bad: He was talkative and always had the right answer in Hermeneutics, and it was obvious that he was a great speaker. From the little bit that I knew Carson (from those girls who liked him and from things a few of his roommates said in class), I knew that he was a trusted friend, a thoughtful person, and really studied the Bible. He seemed diligent and focused and I actually thought that he was much older than he was (he turned 22 at the end of the first semester). From what I knew, I admired who he was as a person, but he didn't occupy my thoughts. I thought, "Hm, he seems like a nice guy" and intended to leave it there. In fact, I didn't know his correct last name. He'd written it down on something for the newspaper as “Bay”, but didn't form the “B” all the way, so I thought his last name was actually Day.

Not too long after we'd started that second semester (before I even knew his correct last name), he decided to pursue me.

(and if you're wondering, he sent me an article to proof a few days after he'd asked me out, and that's how I found out his correct last name)