The Cowboy's Folk Tale, Part I: Love at First Sound and Sight

During the summer of 1999, there was this rumor that there were no "good-looking" Asian girls at UCSD. As an incoming student, I didn't want to believe this silly rumor until a student in my orientation group from Fresno asked the Orientation leader about the truth of this matter. I figured that if someone from a completely different city heard the same rumors that I did, then it must be true!

Lucky for me, it wasn't. :)

I'd be lying if I didn't say I was looking for a significant other from day one, but my focus was to find a church and fellowship and to aggressively seek out new friends. I had never been as open and forward to meeting new people in my life and I praise God for giving me this new sense of strength. I was able to meet many people during those first few weeks, and surprisingly, I was often the one to initiate the introductions. However, by the third week, I grew tired of being the one to start the conversations and was slightly disappointed that I hadn't found anyone that I was interested in.

Then came the Harvest Scavenger Hunt. I walked to Peterson Hall, where the on-campus kids were picked up by their rides. By this time in the fall, the sun had set and the darkness of the evening had crept in, so it was difficult to see faces. So it was a pleasant surprise when, for a change, an energetic and excitable voice introduced herself to me with, "Hi! I'm Cecilia. You must be Wayne!" (or something to that extent.) So with that short exchange, we had met for the first time...and without ever getting a clear look at Cecilia, I had a very positive sense of her.
(side notes: I believe it was Samuel Chu who first told me about a pretty cool girl who was going to Harvest who lived in Tioga Hall next door...and the picture on the right is Clark playing a part of the proposal night...and what better place to kick off the festivities than where Cecilia and I first met!)

A few days past and I didn't really think much about this first encounter. Then one Sunday morning, I found myself seated in Samuel's Christian Education classroom, trying to awaken my senses by taking off my glasses and rubbing my eyes. As I was placing the lenses back on my face, I glanced at movement by the door and there she was. Not quite believing that a pretty young lady had walked into the room, I quickly shot head back in the direction of my wife-to-be (about nine years down the line) taking a seat on the other side of the room.

And the rest is history...

(though, considering I'm a big fan of long, drawn-out historical anthologies, the word "history" has a different meaning to me than most others...)