Cumberlands has a unique culture when it comes to young love and marriage. Many people have met their spouses at Cumberlands; many couples have gotten married somewhere on campus. It’s not rare to be engaged or date to marry. Also, lots of professors happen to be married to each other. It’s one of the many things that makes Cumberlands unique. Not many, including myself, can picture working on a marriage on top of finishing my degree, but some couples find college, and life in general, easier to navigate with a partner in tow for the journey.
“[Marriage] made the stress of college easier,” says Jessica Jordan, a married Cumberlands senior. “You can go home and have a release. You don’t have to go back to your dorm and study more. You go home, live, and talk about life.”
Jessica and D’Angelo Jordan married Oct. 12, 2015, but their journey to marriage started with a few bumps in the road. Jessica says that she originally saw D’Angelo on her campus tour at the end of her junior year of high school, but they didn’t meet until she was a football manager, in which D’Angelo was a senior football player in the fall of 2013.
“I actually sent her a message over Facebook,” says D’Angelo. “We met up one night in J-section in Rob-Cook, and that was our first meet and greet. From there, we talked and it kind of fell off because of some miscommunication. We didn’t talk again until the end of the spring semester.”
Despite the miscommunication and long distance, in which Jessica was still in school and D’Angelo had moved back home to Jacksonville, Florida, their conversation started back up again. By recommitting himself to the Lord, D’Angelo also committed himself to a life with Jessica.
“Throughout our time talking, I recognized that I wasn’t right in my life, and I shouldn’t pursue her,” says D’Angelo. “The Lord started speaking marriage to me one day. I never thought I was going to get married. I didn’t think I would find a girl that I would trust enough to marry them.”
The day D’Angelo brought up marriage to Jessica, she said she was dress shopping at the time he called her.
“I just knew,” says Jessica.
As for challenges they may’ve encountered while D’Angelo completed graduate school at Cumberlands and Jessica her undergraduate degree, they said school worries didn’t get brought into their home life. The next challenge is bring their child into the world, in which they’re due in July 2017.
“We started early so we can grow together,” says D’Angelo. Jessica smiles back at him, and with a hand on her belly, she says to him, “We have grown a lot in the time we’ve been married.”
Emily and Travis Burkhart, 2014 graduates, had a longer love story. They met in kindergarten, became friends in middle school, began dating in high school, and then got engaged after graduating high school. They got married the summer between their sophomore and junior years at Cumberlands on Aug. 4, 2012.
“We had originally planned to get married a year or so earlier, and ended up moving in together the summer before we got married, so we decided it was the overdue and actually planned everything in 6 weeks,” says Emily.
Emily and Travis are locals, who grew up and graduated from South Laurel High School in London, Kentucky. Their college experience was already different since they commuted from home to Cumberlands. Travis says that getting married distanced them further from campus, but they both maintained involvement in their campus activities. Travis was on the varsity men’s bowling team. Emily was a member of the Business club and often participated in events to school held throughout the year.
“Finding time to set aside and spend together is hard when you’re both in school and working, doing homework, trying to have a social life and spend time with family,” says Travis.
Travis and Emily started graduate school at Cumberlands while maintaining jobs and their marriage, but marrying young prepared them for their lives after college in unexpected ways.
“Getting to face all the battles, hard times, and the years of our lives with all the scary changes together is amazing, especially when the good and fun times roll around and you know you’ve been through it all together,” says Emily. “Having those big obstacles in the beginning allow us to be ready and know how to handle similar ones in the future.”
Lindsi Weis Koogler and Joey Koogler are newlyweds; they mar
ried Oct. 8, 2016. They met like many couples do, through a mutual friend. Lindsi was a freshman at Cumberlands and Joey was a transfer student in his junior year. Two years later, they’re married, but their living arrangements are unique.
“I was no longer in college and she became a resident hall director, so that meant we could still live on campus and her school was paid for and it worked out,” says Joey.
That in itself was a challenge for the couple, in which they’re both finding the difficulty in balancing all aspects of their new lives together.
“It’s difficult to balance classes and work and being married and just trying to keep up with all the aspects of your life and manage your time well and still enjoy life,” says Lindsi
Joey casually booed his wife when she explained the difficulty he encounters by living in Moss Hall women’s dorm with her working as its resident hall director. Despite the initial challenges of settling into marriage, both are eager to start learning and growing together in their relationship.
“I think that a big part of it is struggling together and learning how to manage our time and make each other a priority,” says Lindsi with Joey nodding in agreement. “You become more selfless through marriage. We still definitely have a lot to learn, and I’m excited to see what comes next.”
Amanda Kelly 