Will and Anna knew that they would wind up together in the end. There just wasn't any question about it. Anna confesses to Will, “I always assumed I would marry you, even when I didn't like you. It was just something I knew.” The road to that marriage was definitely not smooth or easy, however, as both Will and Anna will readily admit. In fact, it was a road marked by misunderstandings, misery, discomfort, and drama. But despite it all, it is a road that they wouldn't trade for the world.
College brought them together. Will and Anna met for the first time at Freshman Orientation in the summer of 2006. Will had already been attending Belhaven College's Reformed University Fellowship regularly, so he informed his mother that her accompaniment would not be necessary, as he was quite comfortable on Belhaven's campus. She, being a wise mother, realized that going alone to Freshman Orientation was something that would make her boy feel more like an adult, so she lovingly acquiesced. Excited about meeting new people and making friends, Will made his way to the Center for the Arts and promptly sat down....by himself.
Meanwhile, Anna had been working just a few miles down the road, at Twin Lakes Summer Camp. As much as she loved the children she was working with, Anna was quite glad to take a break from the craziness of camp to go to orientation. As she walked up the steps to the Center for the Arts, Anna met another girl named Rachel, who was also quite alone. They decided to sit together and keep one another company. It was at this moment, as the two of them found a seat, that perhaps the most important moment in Will and Anna's life occurred.
“I looked down maybe three or four rows in front of us,” says Anna, “and there was this big curly-headed fro. So I yelled, 'Hey! Are you here by yourself?'” Will turned around and sheepishly admitted that he was. Anna invited him up to their spot, and he happily accepted. Anna remembers, “We started talking...and then we forgot about Rachel!”
There were some remarkable connections between Will and Anna, even from the very beginning. Will was thrilled to discover that Anna's family lived in Tyrone, Georgia, as he had been in Tyrone just a few days prior, helping his sister move into her new home. Then they discovered that while he was there, Will and his sister had attended Anna's home church. After thinking about it for a second, Anna decides, “We had a connection.”
Will admits that for the rest of that day at orientation “I just kind of followed her around.” Apparently, Anna didn't mind. They talked about all kinds of things as they journeyed all over campus and accomplished all the tasks that freshmen were supposed to accomplish at orientation. As they began discussing the levels at which humans will know God in heaven, Will distinctly remembers thinking “Wow, we've talked about really insignificant silly things and now we're talking about pretty serious things.” For Will, such conversation was like a breath of fresh air. It didn't take him long to realize how much he enjoyed being with Anna.
When freshman orientation ended, Will went back home feeling excited about college and hopeful for a future that might include Anna. When they came back that fall, he hoped he would see her again. And see her he did. “She was by the piano in the student center, wearing tie-dye. I came up and gave her a high five or something because I didn't know if it would be weird to hug her,” Will remembers. It was at that moment that he thought to himself, “Sweet! She is here, she does still exist. We are going to be in the same friend group.”
Never one to be shy, Will asked Anna to go on a walk with him on one of the first days in the semester. To his surprise, she hastily refused. As she remembers, “It felt too personal.” Will compromised and agreed to walk her back to her dorm...the long way.
Anna remembers another time while she and a friend were sitting and chatting in the rocking chairs by the student center and Will rode quickly up on his bicycle, then slammed on the brakes when he saw her. “To me it was very very obvious,” says Anna, to which Will replies, “I thought I was being pretty subtle.” Subtle is not Will's strong suit. In fact, Anna knew that he liked her from the very beginning, perhaps even before he knew.
Unfortunately, Will had decided that it would be unwise to date during his first year of college. Being a rather strong-willed sort of man, he stuck to his guns and refused to let his feelings affect his actions. As a result, Will and Anna became good friends, along with other goofy freshmen like Jonathan Eastman, Kara Cotton, and Alex Freel. They had a grand time that semester, playing ping pong, watching movies together, and having bonfires out at Will's old place. But there was an elephant in the room, and it wouldn't be hard to keep it out of sight for an entire year.
By the end of the semester, Will remembers that Anna was starting to send some more favorable signals. He observed, “She's going out of her way to show me affection...by smiling in certain ways and opening up a little bit.” In fact, Anna admits that she had started to like him towards the end of the semester, but his habit of being less than subtle often annoyed her. In fact, she told her older brother Josh to convince Will to cease and desist. Josh wisely asked her if she was absolutely sure that she would never want to date Will. She couldn't bring herself to say that, so Josh didn't discourage Will. Instead, as Josh got to know Will better, he began to advise Anna that she was turning down a good man.
Jonathan Bassett invited a big group of friends to his house in Boerne, Texas over Christmas break. Both Will and Anna decided to go, and it turned out to be a very pleasant vacation. They saw the sights of San Antonio, explored old dried up creek beds, played songs around a campfire, took late night walks under the stars, and talked about everything and anything. It was a delightful end to a fairly delightful semester.
The next year began well. Will and Anna would often spend time together while she was working in the computer lab. One such evening, they were planning to go to Student Missions Fellowship, but her shift didn't end until after the start of the gathering. Will silently debated whether he should wait and walk with her to SMF or go ahead and go (in an effort to be more subtle). To help himself decide the matter he verbalized it, saying “Well, SMF is starting but you don't get off yet...” to which Anna replied, “It's okay for you to walk me over.” Will was overjoyed.
His joy was short-lived, however. When he went to the computer lab the next week to hang out with Anna, she informed him that she had things to do and didn't have time to waste with him. For the rest of the semester, their relationship was tense, to say the least.
Anna remembers having weeks in which she liked Will and weeks in which she didn't. She called these her “married” weeks and her “not married” weeks. As she recalls, “I went on a walk with Kirsten Jensen and Kirsten asked 'Is this a married week or a not married week?' and I said 'I think it's a resigned to be married week.'” Kirsten, confused, asked her what a “resigned to be married” week was. As Anna sat on the swing at Laurel Park, squishing her toes in the mud, she replied, “I just know I'm going to marry Will McNeese.”
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