How we met
It was my sophomore year at the University
of Maryland and I was sitting in the dining hall prior to my public speaking
class final when I heard, “I see you’re studying for the Communications
final.” I looked up from my book to see
Annette, with her bright smile, standing before me with her breakfast in hand.
I recognized Annette from the public speaking class we shared together and invited her to sit with me. After some initial small talk, she told me
how a persuasive speech I gave earlier in the year caught her attention and still made her
laugh. The speech was a rousing endorsement for the color pink as the new color for M&M’s, as Mars was, at that time, running an ad campaign urging people to vote for the new candy color (thanks to Dave Krieger for this idea at 12am the night before the speech - my typical preparation time in college). Our conversation flourished and
we decided to walk to the exam together, talking the entire way.
On the walk over, I made up my mind that Annette
was someone special and that I would catch up with her after the test to talk
again. I finished the test in about 15 minutes and waited for Annette to get up
when she was complete. It seemed like
days, but after checking her answers three times, she finally got up from
her desk, and I quickly gathered my things, threw my test into the Professor’s
hand, and ran out the door to catch up to her.
In the hall outside the classroom, she told me that her parents were
waiting for her at the dorm to take her home and consistent with the times I
asked for her AOL screen name so we could talk during the summer. We spoke online a couple of times that summer
and started dating in the fall semester after we found ourselves living in
neighboring dorms.
Memories from Communications 101
Annette: Who is that guy across the room in
the yellow Abe Crombie sweatshirt? What happened to the “R”?
Sean: Why does that girl always wear a
bandana to class?
Annette: I can't believe he's giving his persuasive speech on voting "pink" for the new M&M color.
Sean: Where is this big duck on Long Island that she's talking about?
Both of us: How is it that our communications teacher does not speak English?