I'm so lucky to have Andrew, truthfully. I was such a hopeless academic--not that I was hopeless at academics, rather I was hopelessly involved with academics. In other words, I was a nerd. Unlike other young men on BYU campus, Andrew wasn't intimidated by this. I have two theories for why this is.
The first is that Andrew is a hopeless academic, himself. In other words, he's also a nerd. The second theory I have about this is that Andrew missed most of my college years by being on his mission so he didn't know how much of a nerd I was.
He didn't know that I was on campus by 7 or 8 in the morning, every morning. He didn't know that I studied all the time and went to bed by 10 at night. He didn't know that I thought that attending a study group was socializing. He didn't know that I read, cover to cover, every single textbook for every class my whole time at BYU. Sometimes more than once.
Even if he did know all of that, he liked me, anyway. I technically graduated before he got home from his mission...but kept taking classes because how would life be complete without extra Italian, editing, and print design classes?
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl0PzV_QpLZyxYrk8iSxyT4__zIdNNqGvCH_em2cZZZwitagSBc0Ok16IJquHrVPXSUzxrXUMlfxW3KPIanMeE4lZowf1skqpw_L8gJwMt5iiuPw5vW0PC4oSpiOtpiVTrx_Vv/s400/0219177-R1-008-2A.jpg)
So that was my life at BYU: study, work, study, work, study, work, study. I didn't get asked out until the summer I graduated, just a few months before Andrew got home. And then I started getting asked out all the time, even though most of those dates were absolutely disastrous.
Anyway, there was a time that I lived south of campus, just a 15 minute walk away from the library, which is where I probably spent more time than my own apartment. That, or the JKHB.
I was always on campus by 8 AM at the latest. I always had an 8 o'clock class or work at that time and would usually get to campus early so that I could study a bit. Even though it was a short walk, it involved a rather rigorous walk up a steep hill. In the early morning quiet, I would often see deer grazing in the trees but I didn't think anything of it. Being that close to wildlife didn't really make me nervous. They were deer, for crying out loud, not bears.
One day, though, I decided to head home in the mid afternoon to have some lunch. Usually I had lunch on campus and didn't ever go home in the middle of the day, but this particular day I had forgotten to bring anything to eat or needed to run back home to get something or...I don't know. Something. I had to go home.
I had the hill to myself. No one seemed to be coming or going on campus. I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking and was instead probably going over vocabulary or syntax structures or something while I was walking. I felt a whoosh of air.
Huh. Strange.
I kept walking and studying. I felt another whoosh of air.
Huh. Really strange.
I stopped walking and looked up from what I was reading. Whoosh! A deer jumped right in front of my path. Whoosh! Another one bounded off to my left. A whoosh-whoosh here. A whoosh-whoosh there. Here a deer, there a deer, everywhere a deer, deer.
I stood as still as possible hoping that deer don't crash into things, especially humans pretending to be trees, very often while they're bounding across paved pedestrian paths. After a few seconds all was clear. I guess the grazing was just better on the other side of the path.
If anything, this cured me of trying to study while walking, giving me half a chance of looking normal sometimes. Maybe that's why I started getting asked out on dates...
Anyway, there was a time that I lived south of campus, just a 15 minute walk away from the library, which is where I probably spent more time than my own apartment. That, or the JKHB.
I was always on campus by 8 AM at the latest. I always had an 8 o'clock class or work at that time and would usually get to campus early so that I could study a bit. Even though it was a short walk, it involved a rather rigorous walk up a steep hill. In the early morning quiet, I would often see deer grazing in the trees but I didn't think anything of it. Being that close to wildlife didn't really make me nervous. They were deer, for crying out loud, not bears.
One day, though, I decided to head home in the mid afternoon to have some lunch. Usually I had lunch on campus and didn't ever go home in the middle of the day, but this particular day I had forgotten to bring anything to eat or needed to run back home to get something or...I don't know. Something. I had to go home.
I had the hill to myself. No one seemed to be coming or going on campus. I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking and was instead probably going over vocabulary or syntax structures or something while I was walking. I felt a whoosh of air.
Huh. Strange.
I kept walking and studying. I felt another whoosh of air.
Huh. Really strange.
I stopped walking and looked up from what I was reading. Whoosh! A deer jumped right in front of my path. Whoosh! Another one bounded off to my left. A whoosh-whoosh here. A whoosh-whoosh there. Here a deer, there a deer, everywhere a deer, deer.
I stood as still as possible hoping that deer don't crash into things, especially humans pretending to be trees, very often while they're bounding across paved pedestrian paths. After a few seconds all was clear. I guess the grazing was just better on the other side of the path.
If anything, this cured me of trying to study while walking, giving me half a chance of looking normal sometimes. Maybe that's why I started getting asked out on dates...
I posted my story about walking that path, too. David started a club, I think!
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