Girls Need to Feel Special

By Chris Morales '06, Pleasant Grove, Utah (Church News Staff Writer)

During the school year of '05-'06, my three friends and I had gathered one night in the small piano room of the Nauvoo lounge. It was our ritual that year that a few nights a week we would meet at 10 p.m. around the piano and pluck out parts for a few pieces we had hoped to sing in the upcoming A Capella Jam. It was the only time we could meet as we were very busy in our different majors (Business, Biology, English and Communications).

       

On that particular night our lead, Matt Harris, informed us he could only meet for 30 minutes. We all complained because there was only about a week left before the performance and we had all sacrificed sleep and homework to be there. Nevertheless, after some grumbling, we began our usual rehearsal.

       

We determined that the two pieces in our repertoire were almost perfect but still needed some work. It was then that Matt interrupted to say he really needed to leave. We all threw our arms up in defeat and began to schedule our next rehearsal when I finally asked what was so important that he could not spend a few more minutes practicing?

       

No sooner did I ask when Matt suddenly pulls out a wedding ring and proceeds to tell us how he had already proposed to his girlfriend but was too poor to conjure up a ring. Now that he had one, he wanted to re-propose and give it to her. Wide-eyed in amazement we asked how he planned to propose to her this second time. He said, "I'm just going to go to her apartment before curfew is up and propose to her at her door step."

        

We all felt so guilty for having almost deprived Matt of this very special moment in his life and told him to run up there before it was too late! It was then that it occurred to me, "Why is he going to simply propose when he could do so much more for her?" Before we all parted from the room I demanded that Matt take us with him as we were going to do our first performance of "Once Upon A Time" tonight! I explained to the guys my belief of how men always need to take advantage of their singing abilities to enrich the lives of the women they love.

        

We all agreed to meet Matt at the girl's dorms where the girl of his dreams was waiting. Once there, our baritone Dave produced a pitch pipe and after a loud knock on her door, we proceeded to sing what I think was our best rendition of this barbershop style song that plucks at the heartstrings of any girl who hears it... (I'll explain).

        

During the tag (the last few notes of the song that resolve the chord in a powerful way) Matt got down on one knee and asked his love, Cheyene, to marry him.

        

Of course she said yes, are you crazy? How could she not?

        

It goes without saying that we were not surprised when we saw the expression on Cheyene's face at the elaborate way this guy proposed to her. We were surprised, however, to find that the last notes we sang were quickly drowned out by the roaring of applause and cheering all around us. As we looked from the second floor of that dorm hall, we could see that our singing (probably echoing off the walls of the enclosure) had attracted the attention of girls from almost every single apartment there.

       

It was then that I realized how important it is that men develop their talents, not only for the important work of serving others, but also for the dying art of wooing women. Of course, I mean that in the sense of letting them know how we feel and how much we care for them. Too many men today simply just don't try too hard any more and take the attention of women for granted.

       

I am grateful for the lessons I learned at BYU-Idaho of respecting women enough to put forth a little effort to make them feel special, because they are.

       

I'm sure Cheyene would not have thought any less of Matt that night had he simply shown up and presented to her his token of love without any fireworks. But we all learned a valuable lesson that night at the girl dorms about the importance of making a girl feel special. Thanks BYU-I.