Tami and Tim met in the first week of my freshman writing class. Their courtship took place for all of us to see in class, and for me to read about in the occasional writing assignment or essay. (They both reviewed the same college play in their 3rd essays, both noting how much greater high art is when in the company of a boyfriend or girlfriend.)
Then things started to go bad after Spring break. One of them - I don't know who - went down to California with friends, the other pined away.
They never got back on track.
Last week, as I prepped their class for the last graded assignment, they sat on opposite sides of the rooms, Tami's eyes wet, Tim, glaring, arms folded, as a new player, Tony, patted Tami's arm and offered her a Kleenex.
I know the rest of the class got into it to. Different students would stay after class, helping me judge the mood and progress of the love affair. When it was clear it was over, a couple of girls stayed after class and the three of us wondered if any of us would ever be the same.
What gets me still about it, is how innocent and naive I was about love when I was a freshman. I never would have gone through such a wrenching relationship, especially not in public.
I prefer the breakup period to courtship. When they're courting, I feel like I must avert my eyes!
ReplyDeleteOr get out a video camera. Actually, you can do both at the same time.
ReplyDeleteOr get out the fire hose. Not in MY class, you two don't!
DeleteWith today's Twitter and FB generation, their lives do not exist unless their lives are witnessed by others.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite courting story came pre-tenure, when I had two young lovebirds in a comp class who undressed each other with their eyes almost constantly. Even if I put them in different task teams during group work, they would keep their gazes locked on each other. Neither of them could manage anything higher than a C on work done in class, though the young lady eked out B and even occasionally A work on essays done from home. I guess her parents kept her away from him at least long enough for her to do her homework.
ReplyDeleteThe week after Spring Break, the young gentleman called me from the airport in Honolulu. They had eloped, and then their flight home got canceled. They were going to miss class. I congratulated them and told him to check the syllabus when they got back so they could get notes from a classmate and stop by my office with any questions.
They never returned to class. For all I know, they're still in Hawaii.