MRS Wingfield

In honor of our four year wedding anniversary today, I thought I would share the story of our courtship. I think the experience of when a couple meets should be one of the happiest times because of all the butterfly feelings and love in the air. I love to hear stories of how people met and I use that as a bit of a gauge for how they are doing as a couple. If a smile spreads across the person’s face and they kind of look away, giggle and say, “Well….” Then you know they still have love in their relationship. However, if they seem bored with the story and just state the facts, then I think the sparks between them are probably a bit dull.

I can definitely say that I smile every time I think of how we met and how we finally started dating, although there was a bit of time between the two. Our junior year at UGA, I was a Consumer Economics major (basically Home Ec, but with a few more business classes). Kyle was writing for the student newspaper (The Red & Black). He wrote an article titled “MRS degree requirements defined.” The article was really funny and since many of my friends had teased me about getting the MRS degree, I clipped it out of the paper to save. That night, we both attended a party (a keg party as Kyle likes to remind me). My friend Deb knew Kyle from a group they were in together -- the Arch Society, who were the student ambassadors of the university. As Kyle remembers it, he didn’t know anyone else at the party (Deb had invited him) so he was standing by a wall just kind of checking things out. Deb spotted Kyle so she, myself and seven of our girlfriends descend upon him. Deb mentioned that he wrote the MRS article in that days paper and we all start talking to him about it. I was telling him that I loved the article and how I had clipped it out to save it. At the same time a more liberal friend was berating him for being so sexist as to write something like that. Funny enough, Kyle’s main memory of the night was that we all talked a lot and my main memories of the night were that he was really quite and that I was happy I had found Oreos at the party (some things never change).

So that was January 13, 2000. Fast forward to April when Kyle and I saw each other again at the Arch Society interviews. He was one of the interviewers and I was an interviewee. I made the cut and joined the 36 member Arch Society for the next school year. We got to know each other throughout the end of the school year and into the next. It was this wonderful organization which helped to facilitate our relationship. Even though we weren’t dating, we saw each other every Thursday evening for the weekly meeting and then many of the members would go out together afterwards, so we basically had a group date every Thursday. I really liked Kyle’s leadership style and thought he was such a fair and even tempered guy. (In another bit of foreshadowing in our lives, Kyle was the president of the group and I was the social events coordinator.) But what most impressed me was at a retreat when everyone else was in the living room goofing around and Kyle was in the kitchen doing a sink full of dishes, just because they needed to be done. I helped him dry the dishes and I think that was the very tip of the iceberg that would soon become “us.”

Kyle and I proceeded to become better and better friends throughout fall semester, going to movies together, talking on the phone, and meeting for dinner in between his work at the Red and Black (he was the editor by then). I knew he was interested in me, but I was having too much fun in my senior year and didn’t really want to acknowledge it. As I always say, we all know Kyle is smarter than me (in a few ways) and he just figured out we were good together before I did. One Monday evening I was getting ready to meet my friends out at Allen’s when Kyle called with a quick question. I still remember how I hung up the phone and realized we had been talking for over an hour. It was then that I thought, “Hmm, he is really interesting and not quite as hard to talk to as I used to think.”

And then Kyle was smart yet again. I knew he was going to the Homecoming Dance and would need a date, and I was pretty sure I knew who he would ask. Well Kyle was tired of waiting around for me and he asked a different girl. I still remember seeing them together walking down Broad Street that night and how mad I was (but of course I acted as if I didn’t care when I saw them.) It took seeing him with another girl for me to realize that he wasn’t going to wait around for me and that I needed to get my act together (but getting my act together still took a few months.)

Finally by February 2, 2001, Kyle asked me out to dinner and then to the ballroom dance performance his roommate was in. Because we had been hanging out as friends for so long I didn’t think this was a date, I just figured it was the two of us doing stuff again. We went to Aqua Linda and then to the dance, where we had a great time. The dance finished around 9:30pm and Kyle asked me if I wanted to go downtown or go back to his apartment and watch a movie. Being the logical person that I am, I said that no one would be downtown at 9:30, so we should probably go watch a movie and then go downtown. It wasn’t until we were walking to his apartment that I realized what my decision had implied, but by then it was too late to say I wanted to go downtown. So the rest is history….we watched the movie and Kyle kissed me and we have been together ever since.

Earlier that year, back when we were just friends, we had already made plans to travel to Australia together after graduation. I can only attribute it to that blissful young ignorant belief that all things work out as to the reason I didn’t seem to be as alarmed about this plan as our parents did. Of course in hindsight I realize why they were so worried. I was planning on traveling in a foreign country for six months with a boy. And then to make things worse, we started dating. I think I just always knew that Kyle was “the one” so I never got too worried about our plan. The only time it really hit me was when we got off the plane in Sydney and I thought, “Oh my goodness. Kyle is the only other person I know is this whole country and whole hemisphere! What if we break up? What will I do?” But then I looked at Kyle and knew that that was never a possibility. We ended up backpacking our way through Australia for two months and then New Zealand for another month. Kyle finally had to return home for work and I stayed in New Zealand on my own for another month. Saying goodbye to him in the NZ airport was one of the most painful things I have ever done. Just thinking about it now, seven years later, makes me want to go hug him and never let go. The night before he left I told him that if he asked me to marry him tomorrow I would say yes. Luckily for our families we were both too mature and logical to be that spontaneous!

Of course God had a wonderful plan and our travels brought us incredibly close. Our time backpacking together was filled with navigating new cities, staying on a tight budget, exploring new places every day and having only each other to rely on. I think looking at God’s plans in hindsight are the things that help my faith in Him the most. Who else could have orchestrated such a detailed and interwoven plan to bring us from a newspaper article to the Arch Society to a backpacking adventure, all of which would give us the incredible foundation of the love, trust, commitment and understanding we have had to use every day in our time in Brussels? No matter what other adventures are in store for us the rest of our lives, I can’t imagine having a better partner to experience them all with.



MRS degree requirements defined
by Kyle Wingfield
Red & Black Newspaper
January 13, 2000

What is a university? To some, it's a bastion of knowledge to be sponged up with reckless abandon. To many, it's a fortress of free speech and liberated thought.

To others though, it's a place to find a date, or maybe a mate.

Perhaps you've heard about the infamous MRS majors. Of course, you're not one, but in case you have a friend who is, or ever just wondered what exactly MRS majors study, here's the MRS program of study, complete with course descriptions.

AERO 3000: Individual Fitness -- Students learn ways to keep in shape for the daily routine of wake up, make up, flirt and shack. Emphasis given to reduction and avoidance of beer guts, which are often associated with going downtown every night.

Classwork includes creating harmony between your daily workout routine and soap opera schedule, and preparing for fitness after graduation.

DRIN 2000: Introduction to Drinking -- Explains the link between alcohol and relationships with the average university male. Focuses on building tolerance, acting drunk while sober, and developing an individualized drunken stagger for downtown.

This is the first course in the DRIN sequence. MRS majors must take at least two more courses from this sequence: DRIN 2050 (Beers of the World), DRIN 3000 (The Liquor vs. Beer Debate), DRIN 3050 (Effects of Alcohol on Scholastic Endeavors), DRIN 4000 (Effects of Alcohol on Personal Appearance), DRIN 4050 (Effects of Alcohol on Sex Life).

Those with significant high school experience can apply to take graduate level courses from the department.

FLIR 4030: Advanced Flirting -- High-level discussion of the use of flirting techniques previously developed. Differentiates between flirting to get into bars underage, flirting to get a free drink, flirting to give/get phone number(s), flirting to get a free ride back to your apartment and flirting to get a free ride back to his apartment.

Emphasis placed on out-of-class lab experiences.

GAPP 3050: Contemporary Fashion -- Highlights the basics of any collegiate female's wardrobe, especially black stretch pants, various pairs of ridiculous shoes, black stretch pants, low-cut tops, black stretch pants, midriff items and black stretch pants.

Discusses the selection of garments for the individual, including discussion of who should and should not wear tight clothing such as black stretch pants.

KEGS 2500: Fundamentals of Parties -- Includes proper party behavior, socializing techniques and shack partner selection. Discusses differences between parties and the downtown scene. Evaluates the merits of Greek vs. non-Greek parties, kegs vs. BYOB parties and large vs. small parties -- all in the context of getting desired results from the party.

Includes labwork with 'MR majors.' Students are advised to have previously taken DRIN 2000,
FLIR 4030, GAPP 3050.

RING 5500: Senior Seminar: Securing a Marriage Proposal --The final class for most MRS majors. Discussions range from desperate pleading to closing the deal, depending on the status of students in the class.

Students will be challenged to examine the lengths to which they will go to get a proposal and the ethical ramifications of such choices.

Must be fulfilled before MRS candidate will be granted a degree.

SEXX 4080: Exotic Sexual Techniques -- Prerequisites: AERO 3000, DRIN 2000. Students who need a course description are advised not to take this class.

SUVS 6050: Sport/Utility Vehicles in Suburban Society --Graduate level course. Deals with the selection of an appropriate SUV for carting kids around town, including classic questions such as: Suburban or Excursion? Four-wheel drive or two? Discusses the risks associated with driving anything that wouldn't demolish a Honda Accord in an accident caused by backing up or parking.

Well, there you have it. MRS majors are advised to have another major, as many candidates have difficulty in passing RING 5500. For more information, contact the academic adviser for the major, Kyle Wingfield.

-- Kyle Wingfield is a junior in publication management.