VickieKal

We met in band camp (yes, we've heard ALL the jokes, haha) at the University of Maryland, College Park in the fall of 2003, during the first few days of our Freshman year in college. I was a Feature Twirler for the Spirit Squad and Paul played the trumpet. The twirlers are in front of the band and serve as the entertainment during the performances and since the trumpets carry the melody of the songs, the trumpet players are the first row of instruments in the band formations. On the first day of band practice, the band director (Dr. Sparks) saw from the cherry picker he was in that the lines from one side of the 50 yard line didn't line up with the lines on the other side of the 50 yard line, and he yelled "Face the 50!" to get the band members to get in line from endzone to endzone. I was originally placed on one side of the field and Paul was on the other, and when we "faced the 50," we saw each other and I stepped out of line to catch a glimpse of him in his sleek silver Oakley sunglasses.  I subsequently made Stephanie (the twirler on Paul's side of the field) switch places with me so that I could be closer to Paul. Since Stephanie was an upperclassman, she had friends in the band, particularly the trumpet section, from previous years. I started talking to them in hopes that Paul would eventually include himself in the conversation and we would get to talk to each other. It didn't work out quite how I had planned, but luckily, Missy (the twirler who stood ON the 50 yd line) and Christy (a member of the Dance Team), grabbed me by the arm, walked over to Paul, asked him what his name was, told him what my name was, and forced us to talk! As embarrassed as I was, I am VERY glad they helped out! From then on it was a match made in heaven! We both graduated in May 2007, and we now live in New York City. Paul works as a Derivatives Trader in the New York Stock Exchange, and I attend graduate school at Cornell Medical College (the Manhattan campus) working towards earning my Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences. We can't wait to say our "I do's," and start the next chapter of our lives. Thank you for sharing our special moment with us!