Two things come to die at Dartmouth
-- shoes and dating. Call me
an upperclassman girl, but I suspect
that four years here will not land me
an MRS to go along with my B.A.
That being said, there exists a segment
of the Dartmouth population
whose most important ring obtained
in college is not for graduation but
for marriage. These engaged and
even married undergraduates are
not numerous, nor are they the
most visible presence at a Chi Gam
dance party, but they represent a
notable segment of Dartmouth's
population nonetheless. Whether
or not this Valentine's Day yielded
wildly romantic gestures for you
personally, you can't help but feel
some respect, or at least fascination,
for these couples who go off the
beaten-into-the-ground Dartmouth
path.
In what sounds like no more than
a mere urban legend, M. Noelle
Knight '08 met her fi anc, Mike
Zargham '07, by chance when they
were thrown together as partners
for a game of pong. Following
the usual evolution of Dartmouth
relationships, the turning point for
the couple occurred after Zargham
told his mother they were dating,
and Knight agreed to play the part
and join him for a late family lunch.
Shortly afterwards, he formally
asked her out.
Zargham proposed this summer
during a weekend trip to Mount
Katahdin, and the couple has a few
loose requirements for the wedding
-- their dogs will play a part and
the cake will be "awesome, since
I have always loved cakes," said
Knight -- but Knight emphasized
that neither she nor Zargham was
particularly concerned about having
an extravagant ceremony. "As far as
we are concerned, we could walk
into a courthouse and be done with
it, [but] our families, particularly my
mother, fi nd this completely unacceptable,"
she said.
That being said, Knight anticipates
a small, East Coast ceremony
sometime in 2009, with at least one
Dartmouth student playing a role --
Melanie Pastuck '11 has been cast
as the "canine companion" to walk
Knight's terrier Twizzler down the
aisle. The presence of Dartmouth
will manifest itself beyond the
guest list, however. "I think my
dress will have a sash of green, and
the bridesmaids will be in green,"
Knight said.
Upon refl ecting about the circumstances
under which she and
Zargham fi rst met, Knight termed
the chance encounter a "pleasant
surprise," and noted that "I wasn't
looking for a long-term relationship
at all and I had no thoughts that
I would meet someone I'd actually
want to date, let alone marry."
Pong-playing Dartmouth students
be forewarned -- your next pong
partner could surprise you as well.
Another Dartmouth couple --
Briar Teron '08 and Craig Dent
'07 -- met under more romantic
circumstances during the classics
foreign study program in Italy. After
becoming good friends, he took her
on their fi rst offi cial date for Indian
food followed by "Harry Potter IV"
in Italian. Teron found that the relationship
"liberated [her] from the
awful Dartmouth dating scene."
Two years after they fi rst started
dating, Teron was back in Italy as a
teaching assistant on the FSP, while
Dent was in his fi rst year of NYU law.
Dent arranged for Giampiero Bevagna,
an Italian professor who helps
works with the FSP, to set up a dinner
date at the Piazza Minerva with
a fictional expert
on Teron's
thesis topic.
When Teron
showed
up, however,
Bevagna
and his fi ctional
expert
were nowhere
to be found, and
Dent was waiting
with a single yellow rose. "He got
down on his knee in the middle of
the piazza and proposed, and I burst
into tears," said Teron. "I felt like I
was in a fairytale."
The couple is looking to wed during
the summer of 2009, with green
being a top contender for the color
of the bridesmaids' dresses. Though
they haven't fi nalized many details,
Teron insisted that professor Bevagna
will be getting an invitation.
Less than halfway into his college
career, C.P. Frost '10 has been
engaged to his Princeton-based
fi ancee, Alexis Rodda, since March
of last year. The two fi rst made acquaintance
during their freshmen
year of high school in jazz band, but
it took until junior year, when they
shared a free period and closelyspaced
lockers, for Frost to fi nally
strike up a conversation. After such
conversations became regular occurrences,
"I nervously stuttered
it out [and asked her out] as I was
driving her home, after I had taken
her and her friends ice skating at a
big arena for New Year's Eve," Frost
said. After a low-key proposal while
he was visiting her at Princeton,
the couple is "hoping to
fi nish [their] undergrad
degrees and
be independently
fi nancially stable
before [they]
make any [wedding]
pl ans .
It'll probably be
small and cozy,
though, rather than
a huge ceremony,"
said Frost. "Not having to
play the game, not having to worry
about being shut down, and being
able to form comfortable and clearlydefi
ned platonic relationships with
girls," are the best parts about being
engaged, said Frost. "But most of all,
obviously, just the thrill of being in a
relationship with somebody you care
deeply about." The long-distance
nature of their relationship is the
toughest part, but Frost was eager to
endorse the Dartmouth Coach and
Fung Wah route to the tri-state area
for those car-less students looking to
make the trek and stick to budget.
Brendan Anderson '09 met his
high-school sweetheart and fi ance,
Katherine Pelle of Dickinson College,
thanks to quiz bowl tryouts and
Science Olympaid. After the couple
"eased into dating" from friendship,
Anderson worked their mutual interest
in geology into his proposal
during the spring of last year. While
the two were on a fossil-sifting trip
sponsored by the American Museum
of Natural History, Anderson
slipped away from Pelle to fi nd and
pocket a piece of belemnite, a "bullet
shaped internal shell from an extinct
squid-like animal." After slipping
the belemnite into the ring and the
ring into a sieve with a few other
fossils, he "called her over, sort of
half down on one knee, and waited
until she noticed the ring. She kind
of froze when she saw it, and I asked
her to marry me," said Anderson.
"She spent the rest of the day just
pointing to where I should go look
[for fossils] so she wouldn't get mud
on the ring."
The couple will wed on July 5,
2009, with a church and reception
area booked and burgundy bridesmaid
dresses and black tuxes chosen.
"Katie might have picked out
her dress too but I'm not allowed
to know any details about that," said
Anderson. He anticipates that one
of his two groomsmen will be from
Dartmouth.
For all of you Owen Wilson and
Vince Vaughn aspiring wedding
crashers out there -- the wedding
will take place at St. Elizabeth of
Hunary Parish in Melville, NY, with
a reception to follow at Milleridge
Inn's Carriage House.
Married in the June of his sophomore
summer, Brian Evans '08 met
his wife, Amy Evans nee McAdams,
at their dads' reunion for the Teague
High School Class of '79 the summer
before he began college. "She was a
going to be a junior in college, so I
thought that I had no chance," said
Evans. "I left without asking her for
her number and was kicking myself
all day long."
Evans approached McAdams'
father at a later reunion event to
get her number; the two eventually
managed to fi t in a lunch date before
going their separate ways. That
December, Evans proposed during
a trip to New York City.
"We stayed near Central Park, so
one night I proposed in a carriage
while riding around the park. It was
nerve-racking and it was kind of hard
to get on a knee in the carriage, but
it was perfect," Evans said.
The two had a big wedding at
First Baptist of Waco, with six Dartmouth
friends " four of whom were
groomsmen " fl ying to Texas for the
festivities. In what Evans describes
as "the best couple of weeks that I
ever had," his friends arrived early
in order to tour the state and "fl oat
down the river for a couple days,"
culminating at a cookout at Amy's
parents' place.
One challenge unique to the Evans'
relationship is the compromise between
fi nishing college and fi nancial
independence; said Evans, "As the
man of the relationship, stereotype or
not, I feel that I need to help our family
monetarily." Between class, football
and track, however, "Amy keeps me
from losing my mind and is great at
motivating me." In a secret Blitzjack
operation to reach this reporter, Amy
credited her husband as "the most
committed, passionate, faithful, patient
and loving man I've ever known
(other than my father)."
These couples defy the widespread
opinion that relationships are dead at
Dartmouth -- an opinion that may
have begun in bitterness itself. They
stand as living proof that pong can
lead to more than just a blackout, that
Dartmouth students are not immune
to romance and that even the most
long-distance of relationships can
survive a Hanover winter. I would
never go so far as to advocate for the
elimination of meaningless making
out, but it might be worth your while
to actually get the name of your tonsilhockey
partner. You never know what
might become of it.
