The Beginning of Everything

He had forgotten his sheet music for class and was heading back to the dorm to retrieve it.

I had just pushed through the dorm’s double doors, looking straight ahead, my mind on the reading assignment I’d be discussing with my professor.

“It’s hard to meet people at Evergreen.”

I turned and looked into the eyes of the young, bearded man who had spoken.

Though he was built like a football player, his guitar case and long hair gave him a bit of a hippie vibe.

He didn’t linger long—just enough to tell me he’d moved here a month ago. I hadn’t seen him before, but there was something easy about him, something kind.

He was late for class, so he asked for my dorm phone number.

We exchanged small pieces of paper with our names and numbers.

Later that evening, I pulled the slip of paper from my textbook.

Tom.

I dialed his number.

It was our humble beginning.

Rotary phone calls. Catching up between classes. Discovering that love can find you—even when you’re not looking for it.

We married as college juniors, but life together became our real education.

One spring afternoon, decades later, we returned to that place and retraced our steps. The dorm is no longer in use, and not a soul was around.

Still, we stood there and remembered—

the moment that changed everything.

But it was never really just a moment.

It was the beginning of everything.