Something Funny Happened on the Way to Oklahoma

It is finals week at Purdue. The campus is filled with caffeine-driven, sleep-deprived, panicked and anxious students. It is a week I don’t miss, although I do have found memories of one finals week.

Purdue finals week 1993 holds a special place in my memory. And it wasn’t for the stellar grades I received or other academic excellence. Rather, it was the week my future husband and I would officially start dating.

I met my future farmer during Christmas vacation of my freshman year. I had gone to Purdue with a boyfriend from high school, although the relationship didn’t last much past Halloween. I wasn’t looking to get serious with anyone, just make a lot of friends. I often joke that my Dad sent me to Purdue to get my Mrs. degree, to find a farm boy to bring back home to farm with him! A B.S. was a good second degree, but an heir to the farm was my dad’s first priority!

I was very active in Purdue’s Christian Campus House all throughout college. Freshman year Christmas break included a mission trip to Cookson Hills, Oklahoma. Cookson was a place I had visited in high school and someplace I was excited to visit again. And as per God’s plan, my future husband, whom I had yet to meet, was on the trip as well.

A funny thing happened on that trip to Oklahoma. 80 other students went as well, including my future husband. So I spent the week flirting with my future husband. And when second semester started, we just happened to be in the same Calculus class! We spent a lot of time studying together, although while I studied him, he actually learned math.

After our Calculus final exam, which I would have to retake my sophomore year, he asked if we could go out over the summer. I later learned he then went home and broke up with the girlfriend he had been dating!

My future husband proposed to me 6 months after that calculus exam and we were married 2 years later. God put him in my path and after knowing him for 17 years and preparing to celebrate our 15th anniversary this summer, I can still look fondly back on finals week 1993. It was a funny thing that happened on the way to Oklahoma.

Comments

  1. Knowing both of you, it is nice to have glimpse into your lives when you first met. Thanks for sharing and congratulations on your upcoming anniversary!!!!

  2. What a cute story!! Ironically, I met my husband right before Thanksgiving break at Purdue at a church function, and the very next semester we ended up having Biochemistry together. I remember thinking I have to pay attention to the professor and not this guy. Looking forward to Vintage!!!

  3. What a great story!! Love the picture!

  4. “We spent a lot of time studying together, although while I studied him, he actually learned math.” Love it!

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