Colgate Love Stories

Autumn 2016

 Wedding photo of Crystal and Evan with their daughter.

Crystal Hetem ’03 and Evan Paushter ’02

We met in the fall of 1999 on the Colgate tennis courts. Just teammates at first, it wasn’t long before we began spending time together off the court as well. Although we never dated at Colgate, we remained close friends throughout the four years, enjoying dinners at Sushi Blues, late night slices at New York Pizzeria, and one another’s dance moves at the Old Stone Jug. After graduating in 2002, Evan moved to Fairfield, Conn., and began teaching tennis. Crystal graduated in 2003 and moved to Manhattan, joining Lehman Brothers. Over the next few years, Crystal would often attend parties at Evan’s house in Connecticut, or Evan would visit Crystal in New York City. We also loved attending the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows every year.

In 2008, Crystal moved to California, which could easily have been the end of our love story. We stayed in contact, but we were both in and out of other relationships over the next few years, and we didn’t see each other in person. Then, in June of 2013, Evan traveled to Los Angeles to take part in the wedding of Owen Fileti ’03. Crystal also attended the wedding, during which she felt like she and Evan were halves of a magnet being pulled toward each other all night. Afterward, Evan flew back to Connecticut and things seemed to return to normal for them both.

Over the next few months, however, a thought kept nagging at the back of Evan’s mind. So, that October, he reached out to Crystal and declared his love for her. Crystal was surprised, but also happy! She knew that she had always been in love with Evan, and had recently realized that she would like to return to the East Coast. The timing was right for us to finally give it a shot.

The rest, as they say, is history! More accurately, the rest has been a whirlwind of playing catch-up for the years we spent apart. Crystal finished her MBA at the University of California, Los Angeles Anderson School of Management in March 2014 and flew to Connecticut two weeks later. We celebrated her graduation with a trip to the Caribbean in April, bought a house in October, and moved in the following Valentine’s Day. Two weeks later, on March 3, 2015, we welcomed our beautiful daughter, Vivien Iris, into the world. On Oct. 3, 2016, we celebrated our wedding amongst family and friends in Ludlow, Vt. … just 16 years and a handful of days after it all began on a tennis court at Colgate.

 

Are you a married Colgate couple? If so, we want to hear your love story, whether you had your first kiss on Willow Path or didn’t first meet until years after graduation. Tell us your story in 400 words or less, and send a (current or past) photo to: the Colgate Scene at scene@colgate.edu or 13 Oak Drive, Hamilton, NY 13346.