Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. Some students’ minds are flooded with plans of romantic dinners, roses and chocolates.
But another group of students are experiencing something completely different. Single people are subjected to cheesy romanticism and an outpouring of love all around them while they sit at home, alone, eating ice cream from the carton and watching reruns of “Blind Date” when the big day rolls around.
In an effort to show both sides of this holiday, a few Ohio State students were kind enough to share some of their tales of love and loss.
Love Stories
“I was working at Nordstrom’s at the time and there was this really great pair of shoes,” Baker said. “A friend of mine and I both wanted them, so we decided the first one to kiss the guy we had a crush on would get the shoes.”
“She came over to my house later on, walks up to me and lays one on me and pretty much knocks me off my chair,”DeFluri said.
Every year they make a trip to Las Vegas for Valentine’s Day.
“It is not the most romantic place ever,” Baker said. “But you can make it romantic if you are creative, so it is the perfect place for us.”
Love in the Windy City:Amanda Lisi, a senior in fashion merchandising, met her fiancé, Colin Rice, a senior in marketing, right here at OSU. But it was in Chicago that the most significant event of their relationship occurred.
During last Christmas break, the couple went to Chicago. One night after a particularly nice dinner, the two went to a park to walk around.
“As soon as I started complaining about the cold, he got down on his knee and asked me to marry him,” Lisi said.
Distance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder:Ben Flowers, a sophomore in philosophy and economics, met his girlfriend, Denise Vendeland, a sophomore in marketing, through their scholars program.
“Freshman year she lived a floor below me,” Flowers said. “Plus, we would be at a lot of meetings together.”
The two started talking and hanging out, and have been together ever since.
“It is kind of hard because I am from Connecticut and she is from Cleveland,” Flowers said. “It is rough in the summertime, but we make it work.”
Sometimes Pick Up Lines Work:It is a tale as old as time: A girl comes to a boy’s house party. The boy uses a cheesy pick-up line. The girl swoons. This is the story for Lindsey Hudak, a fifth-year senior in nutrition and community health, and Tyler Sowders, an OSU graduate who majored in family resource management.
“I always joke with him that he used a line on me,” Hudak said. “He came up to me and said, ‘I just wanted to tell you that you have the most beautiful smile I have ever seen.'”
It must have worked, because the two are still togther.
The couple has some low-key plans for the big day.
“Well I work until 9 p.m. on Wednesday, so he is going to make me dinner,” Hudak said.
Ohio is for Lovers:Beth Kroes and her boyfriend, Corey Shull, began their relationship in Virginia. Kroes, a junior in biology, met Shull, a sophomore in mass communication, through some mutual friends back in their home state.
After a couple years at community college, the couple moved up to Columbus to go to OSU.
“We shared the same dreams and goals in life,” Kroes said, “and here we are seven years later.”
I Love New York:Jody Bates, a senior in medical dietetics, got engaged to Alex Wall, a senior in construction management, while visiting New York City last fall. Though they had been together since high school, it was a bit rough for him to pop the question.
After a nice dinner in Manhattan, Bates kept asking Wall if he was ready leave.
“He started sweating and pulling on his shirt, and drinking water, and the waiter kept filling up his glass,” Bates said.
Finally, Wall popped the question and Bates happily agreed.
Break-up Stories
After being cheated on three times – the third time with a guy named Farmer – he had had enough from this girl and broke up with her for the third and final time.
A couple of months later, after calling it quits with Farmer, she called Tavidian again.
“She said she was so sorry and she wants to marry me,” Tavidian said. “Of course, I declined.”
The Disappearing Act:“I was dating a girl for about a year when I was a freshman,” said Timothy Danko, a junior in fine arts. “She was a year younger than me and her family was rich.”
In fact, for spring break, Danko was treated to a trip to Aruba for which she footed the entire bill. But it was not much of a vacation after that.
“After we got back, she graduated from high school and disappeared, and I have never talked to her since,” Danko said.
Keeping it in the Family:“I dated this girl who used to go to OSU, but ended up at another school,” said Joe Shaw, a senior in art. “It became a kind of long-distance relationship after that.”
One day out of the blue, Shaw got a call from the girl who said she didn’t feel the same way anymore and wanted to break up.
“I found out later that she had been at the county fair and had ended up hooking up with her step-cousin,” Shaw said. “I didn’t feel bad about our relationship after that.”
Bipartisan Heartbreak:“I had been dating this girl through high school and then a few years into college,” said David Bushman, a senior in electrical engineering. “There were a few problems that we had had but worked through it.”
But it was the presidential election in the fall of 2004 that started many of the problems.
“We had different political views,” Bushman said. “I am the type to play devil’s advocate and she would get really upset at me for that.”
After Bushman suggested to his girlfriend that he might have found another girl who shared his political views, things got pretty rough and ended rather poorly.
That was not, however, the end of their friendship.
“After about four months, we started talking again and now we’re pretty good friends,” Bushman said.
Alex Drumm can be reached for comment at [email protected].
