Billy Heller
Humans of ISU features stories from the Indiana State University campus, two years into the global Covid-19 pandemic. Each person’s story is told in their own words and reported by a journalist in the COMM422 Community Journalism course.
“I met my current girlfriend in 2018, our freshman year of college in PE class. My sense of humor won her over, which all happened by accident. I guess winning her over signed me up to do her weekly PE quizzes for her. I think she found me more attractive because I never missed one question. We hung out a couple of times outside of those homework sessions, but it was just all about getting to know one another.
“October 2019, my sophomore year of college, I had to leave for basic training and relocate to San Antonio, Texas. I was limited to phone usage the time I was there, so I lost connection with her and a lot of my friends from school. I had a lot more to focus on, so I shut out the small feelings I had for her and started prioritizing my career. February 2020, prior to the beginning of Covid-19, I was sent home after I finished my basic training. I tried reconnecting with a lot of former friends to get comfortable with Terre Haute again. I hit Caitlyn up again to see how things were going, and a lot of our conversations seemed to be filled with dating advice about other people. It felt right to instantly click with her again, even though we both were seeing different people.
“August 2020 hit, the new start to the new semester. It was difficult to hang out because of the pandemic and zoom classes. I hardly ever saw her because campus this time was much more calm. We had texted casually the semester, just to continue going with the flow of things. New Years came rolling around and with a little bit of alcohol in my system, I finally confessed that I had feelings for her. I knew since freshman year I had a thing for her, but never wanted to come to terms with it because I knew I was going to be away for the Air Force. When I told her my feelings, she didn’t say much, which was a sign of disappointment. She had mentioned we could talk in person about it all at a later date, but that never happened because she started talking to another guy. I was not upset in any way, especially since I knew me being away had some effect on our chances.
“We started dating other people and lost all forms of communication. While I dated other people, I could never find myself as happy as I imagined being happy with Caitlyn. I made a list one day of things I wanted in a relationship, and when I thought of who could check all of those boxes off, she was the girl who crossed my mind. When we both became single finally over the summer, I knew the timing was right. I had reached out to her and offered to celebrate her birthday with her. We went to Cedar Point, and everything just felt right on that trip. We began to date August 13, 2021, just two weeks after that trip. This by far has been the best relationship I’ve ever been in. Even though it was hard to find ways to hang out that summer with the pandemic going on, I knew every chance we got to hang would be worth it. Because we weren’t around each other all of the time, I felt safe and secure to make plans with her.
“Although our journey is all over the place, I don’t think we would have worked out if we began our relationship our freshman year. I definitely had some maturing to do, but overall it worked out the way it was supposed to. If it weren’t for Covid-19 happening, I would have been deployed somewhere across seas the summer we actually began hanging out. I’d like to look at this negative pandemic in a positive way, a blessing in disguise.”