The Story of Us: Part One

In a few weeks, July 27th to be exact, Kerry and I will be celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary.  This impending milestone has got my mind reflecting on our relationship and thinking back to the very beginning.  This week I have been digging through my hope chest and other storage boxes looking for any pictures, love notes, and other memorabilia from our relationship.  (By the way, a helpful tip for anyone that saves keepsakes from their significant other:  please keep all these things in one box!  I have looked all over the house, and still haven't found them all.)

Anyhow, I spent the last few days traveling back down the road of our relationship and it inspired this blog entry.  I'm going to share with you how Kerry and I became "us."  I've also asked Kerry to put in his thoughts as well.  I hope you enjoy!

Towards the end of my freshmen year of college my friend Jill suggested we apply for peer counselor positions for the Upward Bound summer program at our junior college.  Not wanting to go home for the summer I jumped at the opportunity.  Jill and I both applied for the positions and we were both hired.  However, before the summer started, Jill decided to take an internship position at her church instead.  I was bummed at first, but I thought it would still be better than spending the summer in my home town working a job I hated.  I was also relieved to find out that my summer roommate would be a fellow CASC student, Yolanda.  We weren't close friends, but we had been on dance team together and she had always been really nice.

Picture of me summer of 2000

May rolled around and I was required to attend an Upward Bound orientation meeting. All the students, their parents, and staff were required to be there.  During the meeting the peer counselors were asked to stand up and introduce ourselves.  This was my first time to encounter Kerry.  Oh, and it was quite the encounter.  Not like you might be thinking.  It was not romantic, or love at first sight.  I actually thought he was a little crazy and very hyper.  He was beyond ecstatic to be there.  Yelling and jumping around.  I remember thinking, "this guy needs to calm down."  He had worked there the previous summer and loved it...obsessed about it.  I on the other hand was just trying to put on a good face and pretend I wasn't annoyed losing a Saturday morning of sleeping in.

KERRY:  She's right.  I was an absolute nutbar.  My enthusiasm for a job in which I did so much and got paid so little was inexplicable.  I think it was the idea of not having to be in the hay field or umpiring summer league baseball games that got me so excited.  You would've thought my application acceptance to work that summer was like getting accepted into something cool...like, anything else.


The end of May came and it was time to move into our rooms and start staff training. I was in the middle of carrying boxes to my new dorm room when 3 guys pulled up next to the curb, one being Kerry.  The driver says in a very "Joey from Friends" type- way, "Hey there, you need any help with those boxes?"  Embarrassed and annoyed I said, "No, thank-you."  Driver: "You sure about that?"  Me: "yes, I am sure."  Later I would learn that Kerry was mortified.

KERRY:  Willy Whitmore and Josh Cox did more to make me feel uncomfortable in that moment than all the farts I accidentally let slip in all my elementary school years combined.

We began our training during the day and at night we were free to go off campus or do whatever.  All the returning summer staff from the previous year hung out every night telling inside jokes and playing board games.  They invited me every night, but I declined.  I wanted to spend my last few nights of freedom with my college friends.

The next week the Upward Bound high school students moved into their dorms.  I  quickly fell in love with the job.  It was a crazy, very busy, 24/7 job, but I loved it.  Each peer counselor was assigned 10 students they were responsible for.  I was incredibly lucky and got 10 awesome girls.  

Every night after the students went to bed the summer staff would hang out in the BCM and have a nightly staff meeting and then just rant about the day, laugh, and laugh some more.  During these meetings I began to see just how funny Kerry was.  He was naturally funny, and I began to be drawn to him because of it.

One day Kerry and I were assigned to supervise swimming tests at the pool.  We were sitting next to each other watching to see if student after student could tread water.  Being naturally chatty, I decided to strike up conversation.  He was, after all, one of the only peer counselors I really hadn't had the chance to get to know yet.

Me:  So you went to Carl Albert?
Kerry:  Yes
Me:  And you're at Southeastern now?
Kerry:  Yes
Me:  Where are you from?
Kerry:  Red Oak
*insert cricket chirping

KERRY:  I was focused on making sure kids didn't drown.  Mainly because if they did start to flail in the water, I was in no position to save them.  Asking me to be in charge of a swimming test would be like asking a cast member of "Jersey Shore" to be in charge of an abstinence campaign.  Seriously, though, I was nervous.  She was pretty.

He would not elaborate on any question.  He would not look at me when I asked them, and he would not ask me anything.  With my pride taking a small beating I gave up and walked to the opposite side of the pool.  What is this guy's deal?  Why won't he talk?  It's simple, I ask a question, and he is supposed to tell me about himself, maybe even ask me a few questions.  It's not like I was hitting on him, I was just trying to get to know a fellow peer counselor.  Lord, that was painful, I will not attempt that again!

Upward Bound 2000 summer staff.  Kerry and I on the far left.

In the next few days I would discover Kerry had a girlfriend...

We were in the basketball gym playing a staff versus students game when I first noticed her. She was sitting in the stands with a friend.  I had no idea who she was or who she was visiting.  I asked another peer counselor who she was and they told me "Kerry's girlfriend."  I remember being disappointed and then quickly wondering "where is this coming from?"

A few days later I walked into the dorm office and there she was.  She was staring out the window towards Kerry's dorm room.  She was talking to herself, but in that way where she was hoping someone would acknowledge her saying, "Where's my boyfriend, where's my boyfriend, where's my boyfriend?"  I looked at her and said, "You must be Kerry's girlfriend?"  "Yes," she said, "and I got him a gift...a card and some hot dogs, and I put them at his door! I'm surprising him, I can't wait 'til he sees them!"

"Oh...okay" was all I was able to muster up.  Ugh, this girl?  Are you kidding?  Hot dogs, in June?  What kind of weirdo psycho brings a guy surprise hot dogs?  Why is he with her?  Wait, why do I care so much?


KERRY:  Who buys a bag of hot dogs and leaves it on the outdoor front step of a college dorm for a significant other?  In June?  In Oklahoma?  I think the better question is, who dates someone who buys a bag of hot dogs and leaves it on the outdoor front step of a college dorm in June in Oklahoma?


I don't know about any of you, but I was having a moment where I really liked a guy, I just didn't know it yet.

To be continued...