“Get Involved!” – It WILL change your life!!!

During the past few years of working here at Kirkwood, I’ve met thousands of students and their parents. Countless times during a TGIF Campus Visit Day or an individual appointment, I’ve heard parents say, “My wife and I met back when we were students here.” Though my story is just a bit different, the end result is the same. This weekend, I will marry my fiancé Emily, the love of my life and a Kirkwood graduate.

So why am I writing about this in my Kirkwood blog? This love story has a special twist as it relates to my position here at Kirkwood. I tell students to “Get Involved” several times a day. I tell them by getting involved on campus they can build their resume, meet new friends, and have some great opportunities along the way. What I should start telling them is that they can meet the love of their live as a result of being involved. Rewind to the early 2000’s. I was living in an apartment complex next to campus, just two buildings over from where Emily was living. We had several mutual friends, yet ironically never met. She was the country girl majoring in an agriculture field, I was the city kid trying half of the majors Kirkwood had to offer.

I was getting involved here at Kirkwood and got a part time job working in the Student Life office. I worked with Tiffany, a girl I became good friends with who was involved in many of the same clubs and organizations as I was. Here is a photo taken of me during this flashback of memories of my time as a student here at Kirkwood.

Fast forward to late August 2007. I had transferred on from Kirkwood to Iowa State and was now back at Kirkwood working in the Student Life office. Tiffany and I remained friends and talked on occasion over the years. It was this day though that she stopped in the office and said, “Seth, I’ve got the girl for you.” About a week later, I met “the girl for me.” As it turns out, Tiffany and Emily had recently become roommates and lived in Coralville, just 20 minutes or so away from where I lived at Kirkwood. On Labor Day 2007, I picked Emily up for our first date. It took me all of 3.2 seconds to know that she was “the one.”

Now here we are, close to three years since the day we first met, about to exchange our wedding vows. She’s always supportive of everything going on at Kirkwood and enjoys coming to campus for a handful of events from time to time. An odd fact about our wedding is that I don’t have one best man, I have four best men who are all Kirkwood graduates. The matchmaker, Tiffany, is a personal attendant in the wedding, and a handful of others involved are also Kirkwood grads.

I don’t just tell students to “Get Involved!” because it’s part of my job. It’s my passion! I was very involved as a student here at Kirkwood and at the time enjoyed the free pizza, the friendships, and the opportunities I had a long the way. As I’ve gone through life, I’ve realized getting involved helped shape who I am and what I’m about to become. Two very important things to me are my personal life and my career. I got my “Dream Job” as Student Life Coordinator as a result of being involved as a student, and now, I’m about to marry the love of my life as a result of being involved.

“GET INVOLVED!” It changed my life!!!