By Colleen Varley Joss

No, I wasn't the brunette who got a C in Biology 101. I was the blonde who, shamefully, earned a D in Political Science 101. 

He, on the other hand, was the chocolatey brown-eyed guy with record-breaking length eyelashes who sat 10 rows ahead of me -- and earned the A. To this day, I blame him for my poor grade. But what I left that class with is still with me today.

 

My husband, Chris, and I met at Ohio University just that way.  From the political science classroom, the story continued at the Crystal Casino where the loser of the Outrun video game was going to take the other out on a date the following night.

Those hypnotic eyes held me in a trance once again, and, just as my disgraceful D in class, I found myself on the losing end. I paid for our first date at the Athena theater -- "Fatal Attraction" with Glenn Close. Go figure.

Should I have taken cover?  I was so entranced I did not see what was so obvious -- a D in class, a lost bet which cost me the total of two movie tickets, and of all movies, "Fatal Attraction." What was I thinking???

 

But even then I knew. 

 

We dove right in -- taking everything from walks together, to a few classes together, and experiencing new friends together. Two completely different worlds were colliding. The red flares did not scare me away. The fact that we were polar opposites did not either. We learned from each other and balanced each other. We had three wonderful years together at OU -- three vibrant autumns, three winters wishing for spring, and three I-never-want-this-to-end spring quarters. We graduated in 1990;  he has a degree in Organizational Communications and I, a teaching degree.

 

We even managed to survive the post-OU/pre-real life years; that time where you struggle to leave the college student behind and find a real job. Those years were sprinkled with visits back to where it all began. And now in 2006, we cannot recall the exact year it was that we last made the trek to OU, but we have plenty of reminders of Athens in our home. Our chocolate lab, Bentley, named after the Political Science building and four children, two of whom are named after people we knew during those chapters of our story. 

 

My relationship with Chris has helped me learn not only about love, but being in love and staying in love. I have learned about my sense of self and how I fit with him -- what we need from the other, what we do for the other, and how our relationship has purpose.

This love has taught me that we are forever students, Chris and I, as we are still learning about it all. How fitting that this love started with two students at OU, and 26 years later, we realize we still are students -- just minus classes, campus and Uptown. Damn.

 

When we talk of Ohio University, it is as if it is ours -- our town, our school, our time, our story. No one had a better time, no one had a better story and surely, no one else had those eyes. OU is still that place where we can go, if only in our memories, that is always good.

For the real story on when they first "met," read Chris Joss' version.