I managed. The next morning came too early, but we were both glad to have taken the time, anyway.
I had been surprised to findâback in November of my junior year, when I met with Professor Wheeler to plan my spring term classesâthat I was suddenly listed as an honors student. It turned out that this was automatic, based on grade point, weighted for classes in my major, with some weighting also for course level. The only reason I hadn't been one previously, fall term, was that there hadn't been any grades to base it on. Apparently I'd been accepted on the basis of midterm grades, in fact. Ellen, it developed, was in the same situation.
This put me in special sections of classes, when there were specific honors sections. Those theoretically involved more work, but for the most part it wasn't any more than I was already doing, except for the actual writing of papers. And the discussion in the honors sections was usually livelier and deeper, maybe even having been so before my arrival on the scene. Not all the students in these classes were honors studentsâor history majors, for that matterâbut there really was an effort to make these sections more rigorous and demanding, and their advisors had to think they could keep up.
When we came to construct my fall scheduleâfor senior yearâI found that honors status also made me eligible for a special senior seminar class and a senior honors thesis. Professor Wheeler told me flatly that there was no good reason for me not to take both of those, and that he was putting me in themâI would just have to construct the rest of my schedule to fit. The thesis didn't have a formal schedule, merely a list of deadlines to meet, and two professors to arrange weekly meetings with.
I wished I'd been consulted about seminar and thesisâbut without question I would have signed up for both of them, so I didn't complain, and fairly soon I even stopped feeling managed. My first job in thesis was to come up with a topic, working with my advisors. My classes were all more demanding, and I wasn't sure how much of this might be the result of what I'd done the year before. I enjoyed my academic work, but it took time. There were eight other honors students in seminar, and I got to know them all a lot better. I thought we must be all the honors students in history, our year. I had met all of them before, in classes for most but also in departmental social events. For example, I had met June Appell and Bill Williams at the Labor Day picnic the year before, before my very first classes ever met. At any rate, we all interacted much more closely in seminar. It almost felt a little like a couple of the smaller classes I'd had in high school.
Some of the papers I did for classes became part of my thesisâin other words, I was able to choose topics for those papers to make that work. Seminar should have been an especially fertile sourceâbut the topics in that class were less related to my thesis topic.
I continued to take philosophy classes, too, and I was in honors sections there as well.
Being married to Ellen didn't really take more time than living together had, but we both found it a lot more satisfying and intense. She still insisted on taking on more of the cooking, under instruction as far as new dishes went, and Pete and Tammy continued to come once most weeks for cooking instruction and to share dinner. They stayed to study, those days. We had two classes together, but much of the time they worked together on their other classes and I worked by myself, with only a little back and forth as we found points of interest. With those, though, I did learn some things from their classes, and they were exposed to some of my work in seminar and thesis.
We became more involved at church, taking part in an evening Bible study group. I managed, with a little difficulty, to resist attempts to make me the leader of the group. This was a group Kelly had visited, and after we were in it she also became a regular.
Our Friday evening meetings continued, too, but not quite so consistentlyâand Jon often was there. That helped us get to know him better. I thought this was a good thing, since he and Kelly seemed to be on track to get married within a year or two. They were doing plenty of things together, but also spending time talking about issues. Twice, on long weekends, they went to stay with Uncle John and Aunt Sally. They talked to us generally about what was said, but not in great detail. During spring term, they officially became engaged, and had sessions with Pastor Mac.
To jump ahead, they got married the summer after Kellyâand Ellen and I, and Pete and Tammyâgraduated, and they really were good choices for each other. They continued to be happy together, committed to each other and to the Lord, serving in ways that meet a lot of needs. Kelly wanted me to give her away, reminding me of something I'd once said to Jon, but I declined. I felt that I would be insulting her real father. Ellen was her matron of honor, though. The timing was really tight, with our jobs, but we did wangle Friday off, arriving in time for the rehearsal, and flying home Sunday.
We got to meet Kelly's parents at the wedding. They were nice enough, but what I saw in them fit with what Kelly had told me about them. They clearly both loved Kelly, if maybe a little coolly, and they plainly got along together just fineâbut there were no signs of passion or even very close friendship between them. It really bothered me. They were way better than some couples I'd seen, who were always irritated with each other or making little digsâor worseâbut it left me feeling sad. I felt like someone needed to take them aside and tell them that marriage takes work and to get busy at itâcounseling or something, I didn't know what. Obviously, I wasn't in a position to be the one to do that, though. It might have left me feeling really depressed, if Kelly and Jon's overflowing joy hadn't buoyed me up.
I also met other members of Kelly's family, whom I knew a little about from talking to herâaunts, uncles, cousins, and sisterâthe last with husband and young daughter. Two of her cousins, Seth and Bob, I had met before, and I sat and talked to them for a while. I liked them a lot, and Kelly's description of them as being like brothers to her seemed to me on the mark.
I mentioned this, and Seth said, "I think that's true. I know I kind of feel that way about her, and there are times she's really needed a big brother looking after her." They were both a year or two older than Kelly. He went on. "I should tell you, though. She's said a few times that you really feel like a big brother to her, and she always wished she had brothers. I can see what she means, too. She's done a lot better since she got to know you, and I for one thank you for it."
Graduation was kind of a disappointment, for me. For Ellen, less so, mostly because she had expected it to be what it was, I thought. There were just too many people graduating, and I felt lost in the crowd. No individual recognition whatever, despite having my name announced and walking up to receive what was not in fact a diploma. Those weren't to be issued until final grades were all submitted and tabulated. Ah, well.
I said, "No individual recognition," but that wasn't quite true. I had actually met and talked to the Dean, who handed out the diplomas and shook hands, and besides saying, "Congratulations!" he managed to squeeze in, "Good job, Phil. I wish we could have had you all four years." For my ears only, but several of my professorsâand several classmates tooâhad said the same. That meant something. He might have said something similar to Ellen, tooâI never got around to asking.
Our families had come, and they enjoyed the ceremony far more than I didâeven though it could have been a pair of chimpanzees in our clothes, for all they could see. Well, actually, not quite. There was a video camera focused on the point where the "diploma" and congratulations were given, and it was projected on a moderately large screen up over the stage.
Both sets of parents were very proud and happy, for both of us. I never completely figured out what lay behind the drastic change in my in-laws' attitude toward me, in a year and a half with only a few times together. But I could see that their initial resistance and disapproval had changed, far beyond the cautious acceptance they had begun with to enthusiastic liking and approval. This had begun even well before the wedding. I might not have understood it, but I was very glad to accept it.