A Complicated Tale
The second day I was in Rexburg Idaho in the fall of 2005 there was a dance. Before I came to Rexburg I was determined not to attend this reminiscent of high school that I was sure I would loathe. As the dance approached my two friends managed to convince me that it would be a good idea to attend. When the time came to leave my roommate Alli, my cousin Monica and I walked from Chapman Hall up to the playing fields. As we approached the entrance Alli and I realized that we had left the five dollars required to enter at our dorm. Monica kindly offered to pay for me but alas did not have enough for my dear roommate. I quickly thought up a solution. As we walked I became increasingly aware of the three young men behind us, so as we waited I turned around and said “which of you fine men would pay for this lovely young lady to enter the dance?” A young man by the name of Andrew Mitchell volunteered and proceeded to ask her to dance during the course of this event. After the dance he pursued, asked her for our number and by Saturday we all had plans to hang out that night.
As we entered Biddulph Hall lounge my first thoughts were get me the crap out of here. We proceeded to the second floor lounge where we started watching a movie. All of a sudden a young man strolled in the room plopped himself in between us and put his arms around us. I personally was revolted by this and quickly got out of the situation. Alli on the other hand ate it up, and soon they were playing ping pong downstairs. As I sat with these new boys I came to know that they were Scott Bauer, Chris Janikowski, and Dakota Lens, people who I would grow to know and love in the next two semesters. As Andrew fretted over Alli playing ping pong with this new visitor I admonished him to fight for her, and put forth a little more effort. So we all decided to go downstairs, we sat on the couches and commenced talking. Alli and the mystery boy soon joined us and he introduced himself as Jacob Mathew Wood from Winnipeg Canada. I don’t know how or when but he began speaking to me quite candidly about everything under the sun. At one point in the conversation Jacob related something sketchy to me, I can’t remember what, but in response I bopped him on the head with my empty water bottle. This simple act would remain in Jacob’s mind the seemingly defining moment of our first meeting and refused to leave this small detail out to anyone who asked how we met. As midnight approached I did something fiercely out of character: I gave him my telephone number, told him I wanted to be friends, and then left.
Sunday he called, we talked and ended up walking around campus until curfew. Through the course of our conversation we discovered that we both had Sister Heidi Eastman for math 108 at 8:00 in the morning Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Right before he left Jacob said “I will come pick you up tomorrow” and then the phrase I grew to know and love “I’ll phone you later soul sister.” The next day Jacob was outside my door at ten to eight as we had planned, as we walked I remember thinking how I felt like I had known this boy for years. Later in the semester as we studied math in Sister Eastman’s office she asked us how long we had known each other, I detected some surprise when we explained we had only met briefly before classes began that semester.
Throughout the semester Jacob and I became increasingly close although our relationship was completely platonic I feel I was closer to him than I was to the boy I had dated for the six months prior. Jacob was my strength during that first semester. I was struggling with a lot of things and he lifted me up. He was the one who told me I was beautiful and to not pay attention to all those other girls. When I was with Jacob I felt special, we talked about religion, relationships, music, our families, friends, and school.
As winter semester came and went we drifted slightly but he was always there when I needed him. The week before the last time I saw Jacob we argued. He had hurt my feelings in some trivial way, and the boy would not drop it. “We need to talk about it, if we talk it will make things better, you can’t just hold everything in all the time Catherine, it isn’t healthy.” Jacob was never one for dropping things. If there was one thing the boy was, it was persistent. As we hashed out what was bothering me we wandered over to the library minutes before it closed. Once inside we decided to see how long we could hide there. We snuck into the pitch-dark quiet study room in the back of the periodicals section, crawled under some desks and continued our conversation. As the lights outside the room dimmed we gave up and started back towards Chapman Hall. In my journal I wrote about how I felt that night as he dropped me off “as he walked me back to my dorm he asked if I would write to him on his mission and I said of course. he held me so close tonight as he hugged me good bye and wouldn't let me go for a while and all this is how I know that Jacob cares about me. When I walked through the gate I heard him sing "Back pocket tape recorder!' and as I walked up the steps I started to cry I am going to miss that boy so very much he is so very important to me.” That night I knew how much Jacob cared about me and that was a very important moment in my first year at college. This year without him has seemed incredibly odd, his absence has definitely been something I have had to work through. I am so thankful I could meet this wonderful caring intelligent humorous young man.
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