I was finally allowed to chose who I wanted to be and where I would go. I met this amazing man, my husband, within the first month and never looked back.
I staid up all night, drank too much at parties, ate dinner with people who made me laugh until my stomach hurt, explored literature, and slept in on Saturday mornings. I listened to music and danced through the halls, played Halo until my thumbs hurt, and laughed and laughed and laughed.
I loved it.
TPs best friend, Donald, is coming up from Philly today. He knew this guy long before I did so he can’t really be considered an old college friend...Just an old friend. This weekend we will rehash our Freshman year and share embarrassing stories, talking about what once was.
I thought I would share some pictures of our college experience:
Freshman Year
I did really bad my first semester in college. Like, 1.9 GPA bad (but graduated Cum Lade with a lot of work). After that semester my mom threatened that she would make me come home if I didn’t get a 3.0 the next semester, I changed my major from education to social work and scored a 3.8GPA. These women were amazing and part of a study group I joined. Both of them graduated, one is married, and the other is engaged.
This is a group of friends I ate almost every meal with. I’m there, the second person in on the left in the all black pea coat and scarf. TP is the guy all the way on the right with his head to the side.
This is my husband. His room and the college friend that is coming today had the busiest room. Everyone wanted to be in their room because that’s where all the fun happened. So many great memories.
This is my husband and his friend, Donald. These two are hilarious together. I mean, hold your side, you have to stop laughing because it hurts, hilarious. They are also a packaged deal. I knew that as soon as I started dating my husband. If Donald didn’t like me, I probably wouldn’t be married right now.
This is a group of friends TP had Freshman year. Donald is hidden behind the guy holding his face and TP is in the far right corner.
TP is straight out of Philly in this picture. Meaning the style (aka clothes that are too big) is something that wasn’t uncommon where he lived. But boy did I hate it. I slowly worked him into wearing clothes that actually fit but it was a challenge.
Sophomore Year
I chopped all of my hair off. I rocked a fro the entire year. Here I am walking down towards my dorm and a friend snapped this of me. She actually has her own blog here. She’s amazing and would always yell, “Meg! I LOVE your hair. YOU ARE SO BEAUTIFUL!” And I put that in all caps because she would yell this, no matter what, ha!
These are some images we took going to a state park. Stuffed animals on display, we couldn’t help ourselves.
Oh, I’m so in love with this man. Here we are at the state park taking pictures. It’s funny because right around this time TP and I were talking about marriage at the ripe age of 19. We knew we wanted to be together and raise a family.
Junior Year
The summer before our Junior year we were camp counselors together in the Adirondaks. Which was amazing and hard. But I lost 30lbs! Anyway, here I am manning a snack table for my women’s group at one of TPs poetry events. He started a mens empowerment group (that is still running) and they hosted these open mics once a month. This was the time I really discovered how amazing he is at poetry.
He is hosting. You see those purple sneakers? Those were one of the first things I ever bought him and he loved them so much.
Our campus had a Spring Fling every year that we helped out with. We were very involved in school politics and sat on a lot of important committees.
This was also the year that TP asked me to marry him. He took me on a walk and got me ice cream (something he normally doesn’t do) and we walked to a trail and talked and laughed and then he sat me on a bench and kneeled in front of me. He told me that he loved me and that he couldn’t see himself without me and then asked if I would marry him. I of course said yes, after snatching the ring first. He told me he wasn’t sure if I would say yes, despite at this point being with him for three years, silly man. We hugged and it was amazingly simple and perfect.
Senior Year
TP is an amazing basketball player. Truly. He always played basketball in college for fun and on small teams but this year was the only year I snapped a picture of him playing.
We turned 21 this year and spent a lot of our free time (when we weren’t planning events, doing committee work, writing papers, and being RAs) at this great bar in town called Changos. We would meet up with close friends there and laugh and drink. It was so much fun, I felt so grown up going to the bar.
These are some friends of mine in my social work major. The woman closes to me is amazing. She has this little black pug named Vinnie who she makes do hilarious things and sends me pictures (like pose on top of books with a message, “Keep studying”). We still talk and she’s getting married soon.
This is TP playing around in the town’s laundry mat.
Here he is at a residence hall function sipping coke and wearing a cowboy hat. At the end of the year all the residence halls had a party.
Here we are on graduation day decked out in all our garb. This was one of the best days. It signified the end of a long fun journey and the beginning of a new one. Two weeks after we graduated we got married, a week after that we moved to Denver for graduate school, three weeks after that we got pregnant. And so the story continues.
This weekend we will talk about all those memories and more. We will laugh, eat great food, and Donald will get to meet Reid. We’ll talk about the funny times we tried to forget because they were so dang embarrassing but mostly we will enjoy great company.
Tell me a crazy college story or a memory you have with an old friend.