Though Ohio University provides most students with an education and years of memories, for some Athens also fosters lifelong romance.
And when it comes time to pop the question, there’s no better place than the city that provided the backdrop.
Seth Willis, a senior studying exercise physiology, was looking for rings with his now fiancée Chelsea Anderson, a second-year medical student, when Willis was approached with a special opportunity to propose in front of the whole Bobcat community and a watching televised audience on ESPNU during the Feb. 1 men’s basketball game against Toledo.
“We were going to do a halftime show, but we didn’t want to do a typical event,” said Mark Bryan, floor manager of Cornwell Jewelers, 77 N. Court St., which sponsored the game’s halftime proposal.
Anderson met Willis on a Friday night in the beginning of September when he was working as a bartender at Broney’s Alumni Grill.
“He tried to impress me by making me a drink,” Anderson recalled.
The couple instantly clicked, and have been together ever since.
During the halftime event, Anderson was “chosen” to come down to the court to pick one of three boxes which contained various prizes. Little did she know, under one of the boxes crouched Willis, waiting to propose on the spot.
“After that, they told us it had been broadcasted on ESPN,” Anderson said. “All of our family and friends at home got to see it. Everyone got to be a part of it.”
Many of the couple’s family and friends were present at the game, even though they were only given short notice.
“If I would have known six months ago that I would be engaged now, I would have said ‘you’re crazy,’ ” Willis said. “But you just know when you know.”
Not every Bobcat romance sparks so quickly, though.
Kelsey Higgins, a senior studying integrated language arts, first met Amrit Saini, a 2013 graduate, in her fourth-grade class — but it wasn’t quite love at first sight.
“I used to always make fun of him because he was one of the shorter kids in class,” said Higgins, who was also director of interns for Student Senate in 2013. “I called him pipsqueak.”
After drifting apart for the years following, Higgins and Saini reunited toward the end of their high school career and eventually began dating.
After continuing the relationship all through college, Saini popped the question this past April on the steps of Cutler Hall.
Although some might think it’s hasty, Higgins sees no problem in getting engaged while still in school.
“I think a lot of people think getting engaged in college is looked down upon,” Higgins said. “I’m 23. I don’t see any reason in getting upset.”
That being said, Saini thinks there might be an age that is too young to make the commitment.
“We were engaged during our senior year,” Saini said. “It’s a lot easier than coming into college engaged.
“We grew a lot in college and we’re entirely different people than we were before,” said Saini, who was also vice president of Student Senate his senior year. “OU was very formative in ourselves, and I thought ‘what better place to propose than the biggest symbol for OU?’ ”
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