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| Appalachian students plan for post-college
future, marriage |
by Jana
K. Nordstrand
Staff Writer
After a commitment to completing a college education, some
Appalachian State University students plan to make a lifetime
commitment to each other.
For W. Chad Gleaton and Cortney R. Davis, that commitment
is only a few months away.
Over Spring Break, wedding bells will ring in Charleston,
S.C., where the couple plans to wed on March 7.
Immediately following the wedding, the couple plans to spend
their honeymoon on a cruise to the Bahamas.
“We decided to get married over Spring Break because
it is really the only time that we can do it,” Gleaton
said.
After graduation the couple is moving back to Charleston
to complete internships, then Gleaton plans to enlist in
the army.
“If we had waited to get married until this summer,
we would have had very little time together until he would
leave to go to training, so this way we can have more time,”
Davis said.
Davis plans to attend law school in the future, but has placed
that plan on hold since the Army is likely to relocate them.
“I have planned everything for the wedding mostly over
the Internet and over the phone. I have only gone home like
three times and tried to cram everything in, but I know the
week before the wedding is going to be crazy. It has been
a great effort between us and our families,” Davis
said.
“If we had to do it all over again, we would just elope,”
Gleaton said.
The couple met during their senior year of high school when
introduced by a deacon at their church. After attending opposing
high schools, Gleaton came to Appalachian State on a scholarship,
and Davis transferred to Appalachian from the University
of South Carolina shortly thereafter.
On March 11, 2003, nearly three years later, the two became
engaged in Savannah, Ga.
“When I asked her if she would marry me, at first she
didn’t say yes. She said, ‘Did you ask my dad?’”
Gleaton said.
“I knew her parents would be okay with it. I figured
my parents would have more an issue with it. They knew we
were going to get married one day, they just didn’t
know when,” Gleaton said.
When couples decide to settle down, the million dollar question
follows suit: What makes that person the one? As in, the
one and only, now and forever, till death do us part.
Davis and Gleaton are sure that although they are young,
“they just know.”
“I have never met any other girl that compares to her,”
Gleaton said.
“Chad is one of a kind, and really special. My best
friend always tells me that she wants to be with someone
just like him, my parents love him, and he gets along with
my brothers really well, even my oldest brother. That is
a big deal, and those are all really good signs,” Davis
said.
For Alisha B. Ross and Jason F. Lail, finishing college is
their first priority, and then comes the wedding.
The couple got engaged last Christmas Eve after Lail realized
he couldn’t imagine his life without Ross.
“I thought about it for about two months before I asked
her. I didn’t ask anyone what they thought, not my
friends or my family, because I needed to make this decision
on my own,” Lail said.
“Once we graduate,
then we will get married, maybe sometime this summer,”
Ross said.
Like Gleaton and Davis, Ross and Lail met prior to attending
Appalachian State, when the two worked at stores located
next to each other in the mall in Hickory.
The couple remained friends for a long time until one day
Lail decided to take the next step and ask Ross out.
“I just realized one day that we had everything in
common, so I figured why not ask her out? The worst she could
have said was no,” Lail said.
Two-and-a-half years later he is glad she said yes.
Lail, 29, came to Appalachian State after working in management
for a period of time, while Ross, 23, began her college career
out of high school.
How did they “just know?”
“It just feels right, and I have never been as comfortable
around anyone as I am him,” Ross said.
“You just know … when everyone just says that
it always happens when you aren’t looking for it, they
are right,” Lail said.
Between college and looking into the future, maintaining
a good relationship can be hard, but Lail and Ross both agree
that “patience and understanding are the two biggest
keys to being happy and staying happy.”
“We are pretty good about doing our own thing and keeping
a balance. Some nights I want to go out, other nights he
wants to go out, we have trust in each other,” Ross
said.
After marriage, Ross, an art major, hopes to possibly work
in a print shop, while Lail likes the idea of moving abroad
for a year or so in order to pursue something in international
business.
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