Poetry got me married. I was a member of Novus Dux. We were a group of guys dedicated to service and various other things.
There were a lot of things we did together with our sisters in L’Amifidel. The connection between Novus Dux and L’Amifidel was pretty strong. As a result, we would periodically have days set aside dedicated to serving the L’Ami girls. We asked all the girls to wear their T-shirts as we didn’t know ALL of them.
The goal throughout the day, whenever you saw a L’Ami girl, was to serve them in that moment. Most of the guys resorted to the easy way out by opening doors or taking up their bright orange lunch tray. I chose a more interesting path…more creative…more...tenacious?
I went to the library to check out a few books of sonnets and various other poetry and went out to The Valley. I sat in a patch of grass with books at hand, and at first glance of a L’Ami T-shirt, even if it were the length of the valley, I would recite poetry from the books in my most dramatic fashion.
At one point, I looked up and saw a stunning blond girl walking toward me in a blue T-shirt with the yellow letters ‘Alpha Episilon Pi’. I saw her from a distance, and I flipped quickly to “a good one”, and knelt down. I screamed as loudly and dramatically as I could. I didn’t even know her name. She gave a wry smile and eventually a hearty laugh at my idiocy that was both ridiculous AND charming.
Years later, that stunning blond would be my best friend through our 5th year of college when we started a dating relationship for a year before getting engaged to be married.
We are frequently asked the common question, “Where did you meet?” It wasn’t on a road trip with friends. It wasn’t a shared mailbox. It wasn’t a magical Freshman Hike moment.
She would be sure to let you know it was on a day when he read me poetry loudly and inanely in The Valley at Anderson University. Poetry got me married!
* this is a snippet from a piece I wrote for our alumni association at AU. So it does assume a reader who knows AU