Turkey Drop

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WWW.THEPOST.OHIOU.EDU
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2011
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tur·key drop 'terke drap' n. v. e
"When a dating couple try the long-distance relationship thing when they go off to university or college in September. Typically, when Thanksgiving rolls around and everyone goes home for the holiday, someone gets dumped. Hence the 'turkey drop.'"
—URBAN DICTIONARY.COM
TURKEY
STEPH DOAN For The Post | sd476308@ohiou.edu ———
As they prepare to ring in the holiday season, Ohio University freshmen also face the end of their first quarter. Yet there is a new tradition to face as well — one which, according to Urbandictionary.com, has been coined as “turkey dropping.” When graduating their high-school relationships to a college level, couples can’t be certain where their relationships will go. While some stand the test of time, others fall flat.
CONTEMPLATING
In high school, •Shae Dalrymple wanted a Gonzo fist sticker for her Honda Tiberon. She said the man at the auto shop gave her a good deal, and she returned the favor by giving him free pizza from her summer job. Soon she went on her first date with Matt, and the two began dating the summer before her senior year. The drama began, she said, when she learned his age. “I was like 17 and he was like 31,” Dalrymple said. “It turned serious pretty fast.” Matt had money and a real job. He did stunts with his CVR 600 motorcycle and could legally buy her friends beer. Dalrymple said she found all those traits attractive, especially as a rebellious teenager. Yet realizing she was going someplace and he wasn’t made her feel trapped, she said. Dalrymple said she knew what college entailed for her: college parties and independence. She said she was straightforward with Matt, who said he was OK with it. Dalrymple assumed the relationship would still end before the summer did, though. “We didn’t break up,” she said. “I was in too deep and he was begging me not to.” As Fall Quarter progressed, he began texting repeatedly throughout the day and calling during his multiple breaks at work. She said he questioned her when she added new people on Facebook or friends wrote on her wall. “He said there wasn’t going to be rules, but then he drove me crazy by stalking me,” Dalrymple said. When he began driving up every weekend, Dalrymple said she knew it was over. Five months into her freshman year, Dalrymple said she began cheating on him and texting with other men, and his knowledge of this led to a fight. The argument turned physical when Matt refused to give back her cellphone or let her leave
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his house. “When I finally got out of there that time, I never answered another call,” Dalrymple said. Dalrymple now studies journalism at OU and is in another long-distance relationship. “(This relationship is) not dominating my life,” She said. “It’s just a nice little reminder somebody is thinking of me instead of a constant rock on my ankle dragging me down.” Dalrymple said she regrets coming to college while dating Matt. She said she met him and fell into it, and instead of being open to finding her soul mate, she attached herself to someone three hours away whom she didn’t care about. “The notion of dropping — that’s exactly what it felt like,” she said. “To drop a big heavy, cold piece of meat.”
HURTING
Tessa Lausberg began dating her high-school boyfriend Tony in ninth grade. Tony was one year older, so he took the college plunge first. Tony graduated and attended High Dominican, dedicating most of his time to football. The couple stayed together through his freshman year in college, Lausberg said, as Tony was only 45 minutes away from their hometown of Newark. “We were best friends up until the last year of it. If you saw Tony, you saw Tessa; if you saw Tessa, you saw Tony. It was strange,” she said. Trouble hit, though, when Lausberg came to OU for her freshman year. Tony had thought she was going to a closer branch college, but she instead chose studying nutrition science in Athens, a full two-and-a-half hours away. “I think it freaked him out a little bit,” Lausberg said. “That he couldn’t have a full range of control.” Lausberg said the couple struggled during her Fall Quarter. Her once perfect high-school relationship, she said, was holding her college social life back. “I stayed in every single weekend,” Lausberg said. “I was trying my hardest to save a relationship that I knew wouldn’t be saved.” During the winter break, the couple remained broken up, but continued seeing each other during the holiday season. Lausberg said the turkey drop might have happened, but the couple couldn’t forget the past five years. “Obviously, we couldn’t go from talking every single day to never talking,” Lausberg said. Although both contemplated getting back together, the relationship finally sizzled out, she said. And then she met Michael Schultz. Schultz and Lausberg were set up to meet while out one night on Court Street last February. Schultz had a girlfriend at the time, but mutual friends thought Lausberg and he were meant for each other, and she said they hit it off immediately. Breaking up with Tony broke Lausberg at first. It ended a chapter of her life but began another beautiful one, she said, adding that she is thankful God’s plans always work out. “Just know that it seems like the end of the world, but it truly isn’t,” Lausberg said about breaking up and turkey dropping. “You wont be over it in two weeks; you wont be over it in a month. It’ll be about six months — it really will. I think girls think, because they’re not over it in two weeks, they’ll never get over it.”
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CELEBRATING
For more than six years, Tanner Brown and Chelsea Stevenson have made it work despite the challenges. Their relationship is ever changing, the two said. After dating for so long, they may not agree on everything, but they both said nothing is consistent. The two college juniors began dating the summer before high school, when she was 13 and he was 14. Stevenson was transferring from a private middle school to the public high school, and the two met through mutual friends while attending a movie. “Then he got my screen name from (a friend) — this is so corny — and then we literally talked on (AOL Instant Messenger) for most of the night, five or six hours,” Stevenson said. Two days after meeting the couple began dating. Now, Brown studies accounting and Stevenson, special education. The two said they spend enough time together to maintain their high-school relationship but have since learned to share time with friends and hobbies. “I don’t regret you,” Brown said. “If anything, you regret things. I regret losing those friends and other things because I focus so much time on you.” Going through high school together, the couple said they never feared being asked whether their college decisions were based on each other. The majority of their high-school friends only knew Brown and Stevenson as a couple, so Brown said it felt natural. “It’s changed because we’ve matured together; we grew up with each other,” Stevenson said. Stevenson said she thinks the two attending the same
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school saves their relationship. She does not know whether the relationship would survive distance because, here, she trusts Brown more, avoiding the dreaded “turkey drop.” Brown said another reason he believes the couple have survived is because they don’t bring other people into the relationship. While his roommates might run downstairs sharing their relationship problems, he keeps his opinions to himself. “The way I see it, we don’t know a lot of people who’ve been in a relationship for six years,” Brown said. “So when people who’ve been together for two years or have been single for a while give advice, it’s like, ‘You’re right, but it’s worked our way for a long time now.’ ”
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