ary and I meet in the spring of 2003. I was a freshman at Ball State University, and she was a prospective high school swimmer on a recruiting trip. If someone would have told me that I was going to meet my future wife that Saturday night I would have told them they were a liar. That’s the way the world works though... you experience life changing moments when you least expect them.
The plan that evening was for everyone to meet at the Ball Street house, one of the houses occupied by the women’s team swimmers. I was told later by Mary that I was wearing my light blue Superman t-shirt. I don’t really remember that. What I do remember is this: I had just finished a trivial converstaion with a few of the guys and walked into the kitchen/dining room to see standing near the doorway the most beautiful girl I had ever seen.
I wish I could say that I walked over to Mary and introduced myself straight away. In reality, I probably stopped cold in my tracks and turned around to find my bearings. We did eventually meet, and we talked quite a bit that evening. A few of us walked home with the potential recruits. I remember talking to Mary the whole way. We reached the dorm where she was staying, and I said goodnight. I turned to walk to my dorm. Three steps later I realized I had forgotten to ask for her number, or at least her AOL screen name.
Thankfully Mary decided to go to Ball State, and while I know this is not 100% true I like to think that I was partially responsible for her decision. We grew to be good friends during her four years on the swim team. I think we both knew, along with everyone around us, that at some point we were going to become more than friends.
After I graduated I decided to work on a masters degree at Ball State. I was a semester into the program when we started dating during her senior year. To this day, I am grateful for Ball State’s gravitational pull, which kept me in Muncie long enough to start a relationship with the woman who had caught my eye four years earlier.
—Joshua, 2010