Donning a White Dress Before the Blue Robe
For some undergrads, Valentine’s Day means more than a free dinner and canoodling under streetlights. Whether you see it as “lucky them” or “thank God it’s not me,” some Columbians are saying goodbye to sweaty nights at the West End and hello to diamond rings signaling everlasting love.
According to a 2003 U.S. Census Report, the average age of first marriage for men is almost 27 and for women it’s 25. So what could make a hormonal twenty-year-old hang up her do-me Diesel jeans and put down that no-fail lip gloss? Or was this her plan all along, conniving her way through Lit Hum on the way to an MRS degree? When college students pop the question, tie the knot, and christen that twin extra-long, is it because of politics, religion, pregnancy, or pure, passionate, insatiable, true love?
For some on campus, finding a soul mate to settle down with was a complete surprise.
Clara Bryant, CC ’06, met her fiancée Peter Lederman, CC ’06, at Homecoming about a year and a half ago. “He was really drunk, and I ran away from him,” she said. Not to be deterred, Lederman followed Bryant onto the shuttle back to campus. “Something just seemed right about her,” he said. Then the two became next-door neighbors when he lived in the Pike fraternity house and she lived in the adjacent Theta house on 114th St.
“From the beginning he was saying, ‘You’re going to marry me. I know you are,’” Bryant said.
Rachel Greenbaum, CC ’06, wasn’t thrilled with the dating scene at Columbia and sought out friendship at first through the Jewish singles network jdate.com. Within weeks, she was e-mailing her husband-to-be, a 30-year-old software engineer named Roman with a similar immigrant background. “Obviously I was looking for a nice Jewish boy,” she said, though not necessarily a husband.
“I can’t say it was love at first sight. That’s overrated,” she said. “Sorry to ruin your Valentine’s Day theme.”
Maybe Cupid’s arrow didn’t hit the mark right away, but it didn’t take long for the couples to warm to one another—and the concept of forever. After relatively brief courtships, both Bryant and Greenbaum were the recipients of casual proposals.
Lederman proposed last Christmas Day in the baggage claim of JFK airport. Bryant hugged him hello, felt something in his pocket stab her, asked what it was, and was given an engagement ring. A few days later, at his parents’ house, from one knee Lederman gave Bryant another ring, the one his grandmother had worn and saved for him to present to his future wife.
Almost a year ago, a ringless Roman asked Greenbaum, “Wanna get married?” And she answered him, “Sure, why not?”
Greenbaum and her fiancee have chosen July 9th for the approximately 100-150 guest affair. From there she hopes to head to a five-year economics PhD program, maybe in New York, maybe not. Bryant and Lederman said they think they’ll live together for a year or so before making it official.
Other couples at Columbia are willing to keep the boyfriend and girlfriend titles a little longer. Angela Diaz Ongoco, BC ’06, wrote in an e-mail of her three-year relationship with Marc Pimentel, CC ’06, “Fortunately or unfortunately, we are not engaged. ... Perhaps if Marc gets his act together after medical school, he will buy me a ring. And even at that rate, it’d ... better be an expensive one.”
Even the happiest of couples, it seems, hit snags. Bryant said her Los Angeles-based parents have met Lederman’s Connecticut brood once and there was “tension.” In that first meeting, Bryant said, there was cursing, screaming, and people chasing each other down the street. She and Lederman almost eloped to Maine right afterward. Her parents are divorced, his CC ’81 father and BC ’81 mother are still married more than two decades after dating at Columbia.
According to a 2003 U.S. Census Report, the average age of first marriage for men is almost 27 and for women it’s 25. So what could make a hormonal twenty-year-old hang up her do-me Diesel jeans and put down that no-fail lip gloss? Or was this her plan all along, conniving her way through Lit Hum on the way to an MRS degree? When college students pop the question, tie the knot, and christen that twin extra-long, is it because of politics, religion, pregnancy, or pure, passionate, insatiable, true love?
For some on campus, finding a soul mate to settle down with was a complete surprise.
Clara Bryant, CC ’06, met her fiancée Peter Lederman, CC ’06, at Homecoming about a year and a half ago. “He was really drunk, and I ran away from him,” she said. Not to be deterred, Lederman followed Bryant onto the shuttle back to campus. “Something just seemed right about her,” he said. Then the two became next-door neighbors when he lived in the Pike fraternity house and she lived in the adjacent Theta house on 114th St.
“From the beginning he was saying, ‘You’re going to marry me. I know you are,’” Bryant said.
Rachel Greenbaum, CC ’06, wasn’t thrilled with the dating scene at Columbia and sought out friendship at first through the Jewish singles network jdate.com. Within weeks, she was e-mailing her husband-to-be, a 30-year-old software engineer named Roman with a similar immigrant background. “Obviously I was looking for a nice Jewish boy,” she said, though not necessarily a husband.
“I can’t say it was love at first sight. That’s overrated,” she said. “Sorry to ruin your Valentine’s Day theme.”
Maybe Cupid’s arrow didn’t hit the mark right away, but it didn’t take long for the couples to warm to one another—and the concept of forever. After relatively brief courtships, both Bryant and Greenbaum were the recipients of casual proposals.
Lederman proposed last Christmas Day in the baggage claim of JFK airport. Bryant hugged him hello, felt something in his pocket stab her, asked what it was, and was given an engagement ring. A few days later, at his parents’ house, from one knee Lederman gave Bryant another ring, the one his grandmother had worn and saved for him to present to his future wife.
Almost a year ago, a ringless Roman asked Greenbaum, “Wanna get married?” And she answered him, “Sure, why not?”
Greenbaum and her fiancee have chosen July 9th for the approximately 100-150 guest affair. From there she hopes to head to a five-year economics PhD program, maybe in New York, maybe not. Bryant and Lederman said they think they’ll live together for a year or so before making it official.
Other couples at Columbia are willing to keep the boyfriend and girlfriend titles a little longer. Angela Diaz Ongoco, BC ’06, wrote in an e-mail of her three-year relationship with Marc Pimentel, CC ’06, “Fortunately or unfortunately, we are not engaged. ... Perhaps if Marc gets his act together after medical school, he will buy me a ring. And even at that rate, it’d ... better be an expensive one.”
Even the happiest of couples, it seems, hit snags. Bryant said her Los Angeles-based parents have met Lederman’s Connecticut brood once and there was “tension.” In that first meeting, Bryant said, there was cursing, screaming, and people chasing each other down the street. She and Lederman almost eloped to Maine right afterward. Her parents are divorced, his CC ’81 father and BC ’81 mother are still married more than two decades after dating at Columbia.
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