The Boy In The Front Of The Room

The same description always seems to be used for my husband and I.
It is a description I have gotten used to hearing.
I am coming to realize that it is not something that every couple can claim.
It is part of who we are.

The words, high school sweethearts, were used during a dinner conversation.
The rarity of two people meeting in high school and then marrying was discussed.
The added detail of two people going to different colleges in different states was mentioned.
The wonder of all that shared history amazed some at the table.

It happens.
I am sure there is some Facebook group that applies to the high school sweetheart status.
People who meet in high school do marry, sometimes when they reconnect years later.
Your story was different, they said, because your relationship was continuous.

I remember when I first laid eyes on my future husband.
I did not know then or even presume that he would be my husband one day.
My husband does not believe me when I say that.
He teases me about my well thought out scheme to get him to notice me.

It was our sophomore year of high school.
I sat in math class in the back corner of the room.
I enjoyed any class that allowed me to be creative.
Math and science were my nemeses.

A tall boy walked into class and sat right in the front of the room.
He sat in the first row by the window.
I was sitting in the opposite corner of the room.
The class was a higher level math program from England that was new that year.

I noticed that many words were spelled differently in our math books.
The word, center was spelled, centre, for example.
I could catch all the spelling and grammatical differences in an instant.
However, understanding the math concept was something altogether different.

I had to work very hard in that class and performed only average.
The tall boy in front of the room appeared to have no struggle at all.
Everything seemed to come easy to him in that class.
He intrigued me.

So, it was my mind you fell for, my husband would say proudly.
No, it was your turned up nose, I would answer and mean it.
From my vantage point, in the back of the room, I could only see his profile.
I remember noticing his nose and his hair color and thought he looked like Jason Walton.

The Waltons were on television at the time.
Whenever I watched the show on Thursday nights, I thought of the boy in front of the room.
I would later learn that unlike Jason Walton, the boy in front of the room was not musical.
Unlike John Boy, the boy in front of the room was not interested in writing stories.

His mind was the mind of an engineer even then.
His mind intrigued me because it was so opposite of mine.
As the year progressed, I would linger just a bit near my desk in order to smile and say, Hi.
As spring approached, the Soph Hop was also approaching.

I knew that the boy in front of the room was not the type to ask a girl to a dance.
Our sophomore year of high school was the year my mother died.
In fact, the dance was a month and a half after my mother died.
I mustered up the courage to ask the boy in front of the room to go to the dance with me.

If a girl asks a boy to a dance, I assumed it was her responsibility to get the tickets.
I was prepared to go to the cafeteria and buy the tickets the next day during lunch.
All of that depended on whether or not he said, yes, to my invitation.
I remember I was wearing pink hoop earrings the day I got up the courage to ask him.

I lingered a bit at my desk in the back of the room.
I timed my leaving so that we would have to walk out the door together.
In the beginning of the year, the boy in front of the room walked out the front door.
As the year went on, he began to walk out the back door, which was near my desk.

It was in the crowded hallway, outside of our math class, that I found my courage.
The Soph Hop is coming up next month, I said.
I wondered if you might want to go with me? I asked, my voice shaking a bit.
That would be great, he said with a smile.

His quick response caught me off guard.
I will get the tickets tomorrow in the cafeteria, I said.
No, that won’t be necessary, he said without further explanation.
I did not want to presume that he intended to buy the tickets.

The next day after math class, he told me that he bought the tickets.
We were standing in the same place in the crowded hallway.
I was wearing my pink hoop earrings.
Thank you for getting the tickets but I asked you to the dance, I reminded him.

He just smiled.
I was fifteen at the the end of our sophomore year and would turn sixteen in July.
I would learn later that he was already sixteen, since his birthday is St. Patrick’s Day.
He had his driving permit but not his license; his father drove us to the dance.

I remember him coming up to our front door.
My aunt was there, standing where my mother should have stood.
I was told to wait upstairs so as not to appear too anxious.
I heard my aunt call up to me and I walked downstairs in my long dress.

He had a wrist corsage for me to wear.
He put it on my wrist for me.
The boy in front of the room was in my living room.
We left and walked to the waiting car.

His father was in the front and gave me a tender smile.
I caught his father looking back at the boy in the front of the room in the rear view mirror.
I saw his father wink at his son.
In that wink, I knew that he approved.

May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. (Proverbs 5:18)

That was the beginning of everything.
The Junior Prom followed the next year.
The Senior Prom followed the year after that.
College formals followed during the four years after high school.

We were engaged on Christmas Day of our senior year in college.
I graduated from college in May; the boy in the front of the room graduated in June.
We were married in October.
Now, almost thirty-six years later, we are still married.

I have been known to tease the boy in the front of the room.
He laughed the first time I said it.
I chased you until you caught me, I said with a twinkle in my eye.
He pulled me close in agreement.

 

2 responses to “The Boy In The Front Of The Room”

1. What a sweet love story! So happy for you, especially since you had lost your Mom, to find another person to love! God is good!

   Reply

   • Sue,
     God’s timing is perfect.
     Blessings!
     Gina

     Reply