Inside the Cornelson Center in Presbyterian College’s Neville Hall, a “Met and Married” wall is displayed for couples who met during their time on campus and later married.

Now, this “Met and Married” wall will add a new couple to the list.

PC senior Seth Cooper proposed to his girlfriend, senior Maggie Wannamaker, the Sunday before classes started for the fall semester. 

The good news for Cooper? Wannamaker said “yes.” 

But getting to that point for the both of them goes all the way back to their freshman year.

Cooper and Wannamaker met during the fall semester but didn’t know each other well until the spring semester. During one day in January, Cooper crashed his bicycle during a ride near Neville Hall, which caught the eye of Wannamaker.

“I went over to ask him if he was okay, and he said he was, even though he definitely was not. After asking him again, he kept giving me the same answer, so I went off to class,” Wannamaker said.

The next day, Cooper decided to reach out to her.

“I messaged her on GroupMe and told her not to think I was a complete klutz, and that I did in fact know how to ride a bike. We texted back and forth some, and she told me that she was going to register for a psychology class before the add/drop period, and it was the same one I was already in. I offered to share the first few days of notes with her, and we agreed to meet in the library one afternoon,” Cooper said. “It was supposed to be a quick, ten minute or so chat about what she had missed, but we ended up being in there for two hours! We started watching movies together, going on dates, and the rest was history really.”

Over the last few years, the couple has experienced their relationship grow much deeper. Within this time, Cooper’s most memorable moment with Wannamaker was during a camping trip to Montreat, North Carolina.

“After we had dated for about a year or so, we decided to go camping together up in North Carolina. I had never been to Montreat, but Maggie had been quite a bit, so we decided that would be a fun trip,” Cooper said. “Basically, we just spent the whole weekend exploring small towns and hiking together, and it was a lot of fun!”

For Wannamaker, she also remembers a trip that the both of them took to Florida, including the whole ten-hour drive to the Sunshine State.

“Funny enough, one of my favorite parts of the trip was the ten-hour ride back. We stopped for snacks, listened to music, and talked all the way back. I had so much fun!” Wannamaker said.

While the couple has experienced a strong relationship over the past few years, they also have been through the ups and downs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, inconveniences put a strong strain on meeting each other during the lockdown.

“We started dating only a couple weeks before the start of the pandemic, and even though we are only about an hour and a half apart during breaks, we both have immunocompromised family members at home, so we had to rely heavily on phone calls and Google Hangouts for a little while,” Cooper said. “It was tough not seeing each other in person as much, but it forced us to really build an emotional bond over the summer, and I think overall it really helped us get closer.”

Eventually, though, all of the couple’s moments all culminated into one day: August 21, 2022. 

For weeks in advance, Cooper began preparing for this day to propose to Wannamaker, hoping to surprise his soon-to-be fiancée.

“I called up her friends and told them I was planning to do it in about a week,” Cooper said. “She thought it was going to happen during fall break when we went down to Beaufort to visit some family. She wanted to be surprised, so I wanted to have something planned to throw her off the trail a little.”

The week before classes started, Cooper convinced Wannamaker to go on a hike to the top of Table Rock Mountain. She was a little suspicious of his sudden urge to go hiking but went along anyway.

“I was suspect, but after him telling me multiple times on the way up the mountain that it wasn’t going to happen, I was like, okay,” Wannamaker said. “I also thought it was going to happen over fall break.”

Cooper waited until they made it to the top before he popped the question, and despite her suspicions, Wannamaker was surprised and speechless.

“We got there pretty early and were a little worried about the rainy weather, but we went ahead anyway. By the time we got to the top, it was only a little cloudy and we had the whole viewpoint of the trail to ourselves,” Cooper said. “While we were taking pictures, I had her turn around for one and when she wasn’t looking, I pulled the ring out of my bag and asked.”

After graduation, Wannamaker, a biology major with minors in religion and psychology, hopes to attend PC’s occupational therapy school. Cooper, a data analytics and management major, is currently searching for a job after he graduates. 

Currently, the couple is house hunting around Clinton, while also tentatively planning a fall wedding next year.

As of right now, Cooper looks forward to adding their names to Neville’s “Met and Married” wall, even if Wannamaker doesn’t want to. But their story shows that couples can build long-lasting relationships throughout their four years at PC. 

For other college couples, Cooper advises that communication is key.

“Besides stories, which we have plenty of, I think the other big thing my friends ask me about is how we have made it work through college and how we plan to make it work after with both of us having different career goals,” Cooper said. “Honestly, it boils down to communication. We found a plan that will let us both pursue our dreams without one person having to sacrifice too much.”