Sweetheart Stories
Grant Escandon '18 & Ruth Smitherman '19
Contest Winner
We met in the Preus-Brandt Forum during the improv troupe auditions in my sophomore year, and Ruth’s freshman year. I remember Ruth had a hilarious scene where she and her “roommate” shared everything from their clothes to their toothbrush, but they drew the line at sharing a hair dryer. Ruth noticed me because I had brought my melodica with me to play during the lunch break, and I noticed her because of her cute laugh. She didn’t make the troupe until the following year, but she was in the audience at every one of my shows. We started seeing more and more of each other, between improv class, hanging out at Jack’s Corner, and trying to learn Swedish together in the new student union building. I remember we hiked up to the cross one night after my wind ensemble concert and we decided to start dating “officially,” though we already spent most days together. Fast forward to 5 years later, I finally worked up the courage to ask Ruth to be my wife. She said yes, and we are planning on having a good old-fashioned Lutheran wedding at the Samuelson Chapel, at the school that gave us everything.