Wednesday, February 9, 2022

Kassie (Dye) `01 and Tyler Keener `02

 Kassie (Dye) `01 and Tyler Keener `02

Tyler and I met the fall of my senior year. I had settled myself to the fact that I was not going to find anyone at Malone. The Lord had other ideas. After leaving class one day, I past Tyler and out of the blue, he spoke to me.  I remember thinking it strange that he was saying hello to me. I dismissed the thought and the days continued . A few days later, Tyler called my room and asked to borrow my notes for a class that we had together. Now, this class was relatively simple and if someone needed to borrow notes, then they had not been breathing during the lectures. I immediately made the judgement that this Tyler guy wasn't all that smart. I willing agreed to provide him with my notes. He arrived at College Hill to pick them up and we ended up chatting for quite some time. Again, I went on my way not thinking too much about him until a few days later. My phone rang one night and it was an off campus call. (Back then, anyone with a cell phone was impressive.) I answered it and the  person on the other line said it was Tyler. I completely drew a blank and asked, "Tyler who?". The poor guy had gotten enough courage to call me and I totally didn't recognize his name. Once he clarified who he was, he then asked me out for a date. I immediately declined as I was a Resident Assistant and had to be on duty. I did, however, ask for a rain check because I wasn't about to turn down a free meal! The week passed and we began working together on various work. It wasn't until the following week that he asked me out again. Thankfully he was persistent! This time I was able to go and the date involved dinner at Bennigans, a Malone basketball game, and Starbucks. We dated the rest of my senior year with pool games at Froggy's, late night studying at Denny's, and weekend basketball games. We became engaged the following fall and were married the summer of 2002. This July will mark twenty years together and three children. I am blessed to have found my best friend and am thankful for all of my years at Malone.