Being Engaged at Harvard

Even though the Memorial Hall Church bells are no longer ringing, you may start to hear the sound of wedding bells around Harvard. While many students are still searching for their special someone, some have already found the one and only for them.

Not only do these students have to juggle problems sets with extracurricular activities, but they have to plan an entire wedding.

Recently engaged, Anna Veverica, a junior in Quincy House said, "It's tough to find time to plan the wedding. But it's actually comforting to have one part of my life figured out while I'm stressing out about MCATs and applying to medical schools and GPAs and extracurriculars and exams and papers and everything stressful about being a pre-med student at Harvard."

Veverica met her fiancé in her hometown in Michigan, and they hope to get married by Lake Michigan, where they had their first official date.

Meanwhile, Brooke McDowell, a senior in Pforzheimer House, met her fiancé Peter Lifland '10 at a party in Pfoho. When asked if she ever thought she might be married at this age, "I was raised in a conservative Christian family, so marriage during or right after college was always presented as the norm. I think that some of my friends at home might have even been surprised if I hadn't found my fiancé in college,” McDowell said.

Nick Waldo a junior in Kirkland House wasn't surprised about his recent engagement, which took place two months ago. "Expect? No. Recognize the possibility? Yes. I've always intended to marry early, the fact that I found my perfect partner this young is a blessing I wasn't counting on,” Waldo said.

Many students may not even be able to imagine themselves getting married during college. They can still barely even do their own laundry, let alone help someone else do theirs.

"What's weird isn't being in college while engaged, but in Harvard. Everyone here is so focused on their careers and their own lives. They are always shocked that I would link my life to someone else," Waldo said.

Luckily, these long distance relationships have the advances in technology to aid them along their journey to love. Veverica uses Skype to keep in frequent contact with her fiancé.

However, sometimes Skype is not enough to keep an engagement alive. As Katherine Baus, a freshman who recently ended her engagement, discovered, the transition to college can change a relationship.

"It was a really tough transition from seeing each other every day, being physically together—and being physical in general—to only being able to talk in text, on the phone, or over Skype. Being in a long-distance relationship itself was difficult, and we both started questioning, often to each other, whether we'd even make it through the next couple of months, let alone, you know, the rest of our lives," Baus said.

But as college students realize most relationships will have their ups and downs.

"We're both still open to the possibility of getting engaged someday—in a couple of years, at least," Baus said.

"The day of our first kiss she punched me in the face. Just one, right to the nose. I didn't get the kiss until after I'd stopped bleeding," Waldo said.

Whatever makes eternal dedication happen for some Harvard students, the rest of us single people will just have to wait for that right someone to sing "Endless Love" with. Just remember if you are on the lookout, as seen on "On Harvard Time," Harvard could be the best place to husband (or even wife) hunt, so keep your eyes out.