13 years ago, my cell phone rang. It was a black flip phone with the basic keypad on the front. It had no fancy techniques or special colored case. But it could dial out. And people could call me.
I liked that part, usually. But on that one day in the fall, 13 years ago, my phone rang during a fairly important meeting. I’m sure it didn’t have a silent button but I could have turned it off.
I didn’t.
So it rang during the middle of my first HuskerVision meeting at Memorial Stadium. I felt like a shoe. Or at least that’s what the guy sitting across the table from me says. It was just a small group of college sophomores and me – all listening to how we would spend the next three years of our lives. Important staff at the University told us about goals and dreams and this incredible opportunity to succeed.
And my black flip phone interrupted it.
I remember a lot of things. Weird details about what I did in my past, birthdays of old friends, routes I’ve taken on back roads through the country. But I don’t really remember this moment. In my mind, the phone call came from someone else – down the table. How rude that they interrupted this important meeting!
But that guy – that sat across from me? He said it came from my black flip phone that happened to be sitting in my dollar store purse at the bottom of my feet.
OK. I’m guilty.
He too thought it was rude and shocking that this stranger would allow a cellular telephone to interrupt undoubtedly one of the most important moments of our college career.
It didn’t bother him for too long, of course – as we were married a few years later.
That guy and I spent a few hours at Memorial Stadium last weekend. Each time I step on campus in the fall, I’m reminded of how lucky I am to have him, our girls and this life. Emotions can do that to a girl. Maybe you can relate?
The stadium has changed now. The doors we walked through hundreds if not thousands of times have been updated. The walls look different – the elevators, too. But it doesn’t matter. The moments captured in that building 13 years ago reside in my memory. His too, although publicly, he probably wouldn’t get as sappy about it as I do. I’m told that’s a guy thing.
These days when my phone rings, I let it go to voicemail or miss it all together because I’ve set it to vibrate. Technology has come a long way in 13 years. My brain to grasp such technology has too. But when his name comes up, vibrate or not – I answer it. It’s the phone call I’m always happy to receive.