Emmanuel and I met in 2014 during my first year in pharmacy school at Texas Southern University. He was assigned to be one of my mentors through African Pharmacy Students Association, but he barely mentored me lol. We would talk on brief occasions if I needed advice or guidance on how to study for certain exams or difficult classes. Our conversations remained minimal until the second semester came around.
During the second semester, I was rushing for Kappa Psi Pharmaceutical Fraternity. Emmanuel would text me every now and then to give me advice regarding the process, as well as my classes/studies. Towards the end of the semester, Kappa Psi was having their annual formal. A week before the formal, my Kappa Psi big, who also happened to be his classmate, reached out to me to see if I was bringing a date to the formal. At the time, I was very single and wasn’t about the dating life, so I told her that I wasn’t bringing anyone with me. She then proceeded to tell me that someone in the fraternity had a crush on me and that they would reveal themselves to me at the formal. Of course, with this information, I started to rack my brain to figure out who it could possibly be. When the formal came around, I was on guard the whole night waiting to see who would approach me and reveal themselves as the secret admirer lol. As the night went on, I went to the bar to get something to drink. Emmanuel had been watching my every move that night, and was waiting for a chance when I was alone so that he could approach me. Once he saw that I was by myself near the bar, he ran over so quick to get my attention. We began to engage in small talk, and he then proceeds to tell me that he was interested in getting to know me more. I decided to give him a chance, and that was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life.
This here is the account of the TRUE story of how Lillian and I met. I first met my bride to be in a classroom in the Science and Technology building at Texas Southern University. However, according to our parents, we may have met each other in daycare when we were very young. I guess fate brought us back together later. Anyways, I was attending a meeting for African Pharmacy Student Association and was told that I was going to be a mentor for 1st year pharmacy student. As fate would have it, Lillian was assigned to me as my mentee. At once, I proceeded to inundate her with streams of poetic and majestic words that immediately swept her off her lovely feet and into my arms and the rest was history. Lol just kidding. That came much later. We had a brief discussion about strategies on how to study for tests and I shared a few anecdotes of my past experiences. It was a pretty dry conversation lol. We exchanged contacts and parted ways. We texted a few times afterwards but it was strictly about pharmacy school related things.
About 6 months went by with no communication between one another. Then the season for recruiting and rushing members for the Kappa Psi Pharmaceutical Fraternity Inc. had arrived. I found out through the grapevine, not from her smh, that she was interested in becoming a member. Side note, she wasn't really a very good mentee. She often neglected me (tear falls). Of course I thought it was cool that she wanted to pledge for the fraternity, but I hadn’t spoken to her for awhile so I wasn’t sure how things were going for her. As she went through the “process”, I began to hear really good things about her from friends. This piqued my interest and I slowly began to notice her more and more. It was as though a subtle force was directing my attention towards her, but in a very gradual way. Mind you, at this time I was praying regularly to God to bring a godly woman in my life that would draw me closer to him if it be His will. I am so glad it was. When I found out she was into sports, artistic and kind, I knew I had to give it a shot. However, the challenge was finding a way to change her view of me as a “mentor” she barely converses with, to a guy she would consider dating. This is where I had to devise a plan to change the way she saw me.
I spoke with a classmate who I knew well and who was also close to her at the time. I asked her to let Lillian know that there is someone who was interested in her and that he would let her know at our annual Kappa Psi Formal event. My hope was that it would spark some level of interest and curiosity in her about who it could be. Luckily, this worked like a charm. By the time the formal came around, she was eagerly and nervously expecting to meet someone. Although I had planned this in advance, I really didn’t have a true game plan in mind on how and when I was going to approach her that evening. I just had to make it genuine and speak from the heart and hope God would supply an opening. Oh how faithful God is! He created an opening I could never have planned for. I saw her when she was coming from the bar area, and of course she looked gorgeous as I knew she would. I don’t even know what I said, but whatever it was, was meant to be said because soon after we were dancing. That night we had our first dance and we’ve been dancing together ever since.