A Sappy Relationship Story....

For our next part of the cardboard chair building, we are focusing on a relationship and trying to convey that idea through the design of the chair. The relationship I am going to focus on is the one between my boyfriend and me. Here is a long, drawn-out backstory and probably much more information about how the two of us met than you ever cared to read:

As a recently graduated high school student, my final high school summer was coming to a close, the University of Kansas becoming more predominate in my near future, and I would be adjusting to a new lifestyle soon. The freedom of college was just as daunting as it was alluring. The final day of summer ca me and all my needed belongings, a few new, some old, were being loaded up in tubes and slid into the back of my dad’s pick-up truck. That first night at KU – away from my home and family, the very people I lived my whole life with – actually wasn’t as heartbreaking as you would expect it to be. I met my roommates earlier that day and gradually was introduced to my new, fellow hallmates. That first week was the real flood of new relationships. Greeting and chatting with people was a daily interaction and every day I met at least five people I’d never seen before in my life. One of the strongest, newly developed relationships I formed began as a friendship.

            Charlie McCool was just another guy friend at our brother hall, Pearson. Sellards had an optional initiation event at 3am where all the new Sellards women would parade over to Pearson to play a “speed dating” question game in their kitchen and then a “kissing” game in their study room. This was the first time I ever met Charlie, but frankly I didn’t remember anyone specifically from that night due to the fact that I was mind-bogglingly exhausted from being woken up at 3am. He noticed me though. The next week when the halls came together again for a weekly tradition called Loopy Day (held on Thursday at 11:55pm to celebrate the coming of Friday), my roommate and I stayed over at Pearson and hung out with some of the guys in their study room. Charlie was among them. As Colin’s fingers danced along the keyboard of the piano, Jake, Billy, and Charlie talked with my roommate and me. The conversation was casual, covering topics like video games and knives and other miscellaneous things. Then I went back to Sellards and that night was over. But it was the first of many late nights at Pearson for my roommate and me.

            We started an informal study group with the guys we met that Thursday. We invaded Colin’s room on the second floor with our books and laptops, sometimes spilling out into the hallway as well. I still hadn’t noticed Charlie too much. These gathering continued for some time after that and other social events, hosted by the Scholarship Hall community, also took place. I did get closer to him because he started to make a more obvious effort to be more physically close to me (like sitting next to me when we studied). He was sweet and funny, and there was something charming about him that made me ok with him coming closer. The official day we started dating was September 24, when he asked me out and we went to the Burger Stand for dinner. It wasn’t awkward, like most first dates are, and we could easily talk and laugh together. Ever since then we’ve only become closer and the time I spend with him is special. There is a certain level of devotion and connection that each member of a couple feels towards the other. I feel like my relationship with Charlie is something strong and intimate – something that expands like individual strands of thread intertwining and growing into a massive conglomeration of shared experiences.