Sabrina Wollenberg '18 & Noah Park
I was in my Junior year at Bethany College, casting and directing a play I had written as a sophomore for Playwriting class. Casting night had just wrapped up, I had all my parts picked out and was excited for the show. The next day, I get a call from Greg LeGault, the Theater professor, saying "There's a stupid freshmen boy who forgot the dates of the audition, and he still wants to try out for your show. It's up to you - do you want to meet with him and see if you want him?"
I said, "Stupid freshmen boy, but yes, I will give him a shot." So, I met with the boy in Burnett, and had to read the lines on stage with him so he could do his part, and we just kind of clicked. I couldn't really shake the "stupid freshmen boy" from my mind, and wanted to give him a good part in the play, but since I had already cast, there wasn't really a good spot to put him.
But since I was both the director and playwright, I literally just wrote in a new character the day before we printed scripts, and just created a whole new part and dialogue so that I could cast him and work with him some more in rehearsals. (Total abuse of power, I get it.) AND, since I was his director, I had his cell phone number, and we started talking.
We were also in choir together, I was the choir Vice President and Chaplin. I wasn't really sure if he liked me or not, and I was trying to keep it professional since I was his director in the show. But, Dr. Lucas was holding a choir BBQ at his house, right behind the college, and everyone was invited. Noah started texting me all these questions about the BBQ, like what time was it, what to bring, etc., and then finally was like "I have no idea where it's at, can you walk me there?" And I said "It's literally a block behind the school. Walk straight west from Presser and you can't miss it." And I sent him the address and a screenshot from google maps, and still he said, "Nope, I'll definitely get lost, you better just walk me there." And I didn't put together that this was his version of basically asking me out, which would have been a great little intro "date'" except, as mentioned, the walk was literally only a block and then we were with 40 other people, which Noah later admitted he hadn't thought through and thought he had more time, as he puts it, to "put on the moves."
The rest is kind of history in a way. Through Theater, we did at least 3 more shows together, either acting, directing or stage managing. Through Choir, we toured all over the country, and then also internationally to Germany and Sweden. (The same choir tour my mom went on exactly 30 years before me at Bethany. You can tell in the pictures she has, and the ones I have, that we are standing in exactly the same spots overseas, decades apart.)
Noah was also a Sig, and I was an Omega, so through Greek Life, we were Sig/Omega sweethearts. We also worked together on the Student Activities Board.
He first said he loved me, and later proposed, on Coronado Heights. We took our wedding pictures across Lindsborg and down by the Old Mill, some of our favorite dates were going to the Kanopolis Drive in and meals at Farleys for open mic nights, and coffee dates and poetry nights at the White Peacock. Not to mention late night foodie binges to Panchos and KAPS for pizza. The first gift I ever bought Noah, was for christmas, a little red Dala Horse ornament that I had painted our initials on, "N + S" (it was very small, that's all that ever fit, lol.) And we hang it in our kitchen window now.
At our wedding - Our programs of the day were called "Playbills", kind of a nod towards us meeting through theater. And Dr. Lucas was in attendance, since he watched us both grow up through his choir, and so were 2 other Bethany faculty and several Sigs/Omegas.
I graduated in 2018 - Noah ended up leaving early before he officially graduated, but he is definitely a Swede through and through. He often dressed as the Mascot for different events and sport games.
Today, we both work together at Bethany in the Admissions office, and live 3 blocks away from campus with our dog who's our baby, Ranger. We spend all our days in the place we found each other and fell in love, and get to witness and recruit all these new Bethany Swedes and watch them all find their friends and spouses and so much more, and it's really a beautiful thing.
And here we are 5 years later - and I married the stupid freshmen boy, and am so very glad that I did. Even though I still have to help him remember deadlines, lol.
