As the school year winds down and graduation is fast approaching, some seniors are preparing to do or have done what other seniors may think is the unthinkable: marriage.
Seven Dartmouth seniors have taken the plunge and are either engaged or already married. Many of the engaged students said they are waiting until after graduation to go through with the big event.
Jenn Lasky '95 is engaged to Yann Morvan, a French citizen who is transfer student at Boston University. Lasky took a break from cutting Morvan's hair to describe him.
"He's perfect!" she said with a smile. "Christie Brinkley could walk in here naked, and I don't think he would look up. Everything he does is to make me happy."
"He just got roommate of the week," she said. Morvan lives with Lasky and her six female roommates.
Lasky said she came to Dartmouth looking for the perfect man, but soon discovered "he obviously wasn't here."
She said she and Morvan first met on an exchange program when they were both fifteen years old. She said they were each other's first kiss but they did not see each other again until she was in Europe before her junior year of college.
At that point, she said, the two started dating seriously. Morvan proposed on March 23, the day after the six-year anniversary of their first kiss. She said he kept nervously switching between English to French when he proposed.
"I've never had a doubt," she said about accepting his proposal. "I was sure almost two years ago, but it just gets more sure."
"My parents love him. To my mother, he's a second son. My mom calls him on the phone as much as I do," she said, adding that her mom sends birthday presents to all of his relatives in France.
Lasky and Morvan said they plan to marry in two years in France.
Lasky said she still plans to finish graduate school before starting a family. She said she will continue working in one capacity or another while raising children.
Brian Bajari '95 said he plans to wed his fiancee Suzie Naiva, a senior at Cornell University, six days after his graduation.
Bajari met Naiva at a Young Life camp two and a half years ago.He said he had seen her months before he met her. "Call it divine intervention, but I knew we'd meet again," he said.
He said he has no hesitation about getting married. "I think we knew even within the first week that we met," he said. "We want to grow together."
Bajari said he proposed to Naiva last year on her birthday. He said he went to her apartment when she was studying and placed roses and poetry all around. He then set up a scavenger hunt for her. "She had to follow this trail of flowers and people giving her notes along the way," he said.
Bajari said Naiva found him in a park by a river with her favorite flower, a blue iris, and a proposal for marriage. "We had a beautiful day together," he said.
Alison Cares '95 said she is engaged to Todd Johnson, her boyfriend of four-and-a-half years, and will go with him on his naval duty next year.
"I said that I wouldn't go unless we were married," she said.
Cares said when she first met Johnson, he told her he would never like her in a romantic way. With a laugh, she said she started dating Johnson shortly afterwards.
"People [at Dartmouth] are not afraid to tell you that your choice is the wrong one," she said. She added she thinks this judgmental attitude is a "New England liberal arts thing."
Other College seniors are already married. Enrique '95 and Melissa Camarena have been married for a year and three months. Enrique said the decision to get married while in school was the right choice for him.
"It brings a peace of mind and allows you to concentrate more on other things," he said.
Enrique said he knew Melissa, who attends San Diego State University, was right for him because he "just felt something was missing when she wasn't there."
Melissa took a year off from school to live with Enrique throughout his senior year. She said she thought a lot about the decision to move and decided it was the right choice.
Seniors are not the only people at Dartmouth who are engaged.
Although Michelle Thibodeau '96 has only been dating her fiancee, Darren Collins, for about a year, she said she hopes to marry within the next year.
Thibodeau said Collins grew up in the next town over from hers in Maine.
"We met in a bar. I'd had a crush on him for years," she said. "Even on our first date, I thought he was the sweetest person I've ever met."
Thibodeau said they had often discussed marriage but when he finally proposed she went into shock. She said she was in tears when she called her parents the next day, questioning everything she felt.
But she said "it was just a phase I went through."
Michelle said she has been removed from the campus social scene since the engagement. "That's a sacrifice I'm willing to make," she said. "I'm a lot happier now."
