Butterflies + Dragonflies

There’s been a lot of divine intervention in Tia and I’s relationship, but our “how we started dating” story may be the one where you can literally see God’s fingerprints on the evidence.  Tia and I attended Tennessee State University. Her as an Occupational Therapist major and I as Economics and Finance major. Tia was a part of the last graduating class from that program. In Tia’s sophomore year, my Junior year, we would be in the same Business Information Systems class. This was a required course for each of us to graduate. For me, a business major, Business Information Systems made sense as a required course. For Tia, an Occupational Therapy student, it made NO sense for Business Information Systems to be a required course. She would take that complaint to the head of her department, petition to have the class removed as a graduation requirement which would allow her to drop the class. Sidenote: When Tia “petitions” anything, she wins. She was a tough sister. She didn’t lose many fi

What do you call the experience of having an acquaintance whom you’d seen often, you had attended the same social events, you had even hung out with the same friends never knowing that person is really your soulmate? That was our experience. We met in high school and were never romantically attracted to the other. As the universe would have it, we would get married a decade later. I have 3 memories of Tia from high school. These are in order of least to most importance. The first memory was at a basketball game. Tia wore a denim jacket and pants set. It was fitted and warranted many looks from my high school eyes.  The second memory was at her high school sorority ball. I was there escorting one of her sorority sisters. Tia and I had small talk. The third memory was at a different basketball game. I remember this encounter more vividly than the other encounters. Tia and I would sometimes talk about this particular run in during our marriage. She would laugh about it while I'd be sa