Our Anna Maria Love Story began on night one of Freshman Orientation Day for the class of 2005. I entered the dining hall feeling anxious, wondering who I would sit with. That was when I saw Cassandra, a girl I had met at Accepted Students Day. She and I hit it off immediately and I desperately wanted her to be my roommate, the catch was she was a commuter. On that first night of Orientation, she was in the dining hall sitting with a cute guy. I ran over to sit with them, and she introduced me to her friend from high school, Kevin Landine.
Kevin was a Criminal Justice major, and I was an Education major, but it just so happened that all those required classes we had together. Along with my new bestie Erin Fagan, Kevin and I quickly became friends. The three of us would have Real World watching nights, or lunch in the commuter lounge eating chicken patties and French fries. We’d spend hours in the library writing essays about Art History or studying for a Spanish quiz. Since Kevin was a commuter, he could often hangout with us in the dorms between classes too. Despite my trying to set Kevin up with various friends, he was always adamant that he would rather date me. By sophomore year I finally agreed!
On November 2, 2002, I asked Kevin to officially start dating, he enthusiastically said yes. From that day on I spent less time in the dorms and more time commuting to West Brookfield and being fed by Kevin’s mom.
March 17, 2005, just months before graduation, Kevin asked me to marry him on one of our weekly trips to the Quabbin Reservoir. He’s not very good at keeping secrets so I totally suspected and may have gotten my nails done in advance. I happily said yes!
After we graduated, I got a job teaching in Palmer and Kevin was hired as a police officer in the town of Hardwick. We got our first apartment together in West Brookfield and started planning our wedding right away.
On June 17, 2006, we said I do!! Two years later we welcomed our first daughter Emma, and two and a half years after that we welcomed our second daughter Abbie. Along with our goofy Bernedoodle Gryffindor we have formed a beautiful family thanks to that fateful orientation night at Anna Maria!
As our oldest daughter approaches college age, we anticipate making more visits to our alma mater. She hopes to be a nurse and thinks Anna Maria would be the perfect place to start her journey. We couldn’t agree more!
