The first time Tom Shriver met Lauren Coburn, he proposed to her. But she wouldn’t accept until more than a year later.
“We were hanging out in a group, and somehow cooking and cleaning was brought up,” says Shriver. “She was like, ‘I love cooking and cleaning!’ and I was like, ‘Will you marry me?’”
On September 26, their one-year anniversary, Shriver popped the question again. This time, Coburn said yes.
One month later, the date, wedding party, and venue are set. But planning a wedding is a slow process — especially when one person is in the Jacobs School of Music.
Coburn, a junior studying cello performance, says she spends about nine hours a week outside of classes practicing.
“It’s not as much (practice) now as it was at the beginning of the relationship,” says Shriver, a junior majoring in religious studies. “She had to work really hard on getting that balance.”
Coburn says now she focuses her mornings on music so she can have the evenings free to spend time with Shriver. But balancing her cello studies with her relationship wasn’t always easy.
“At the beginning of the relationship, I felt she practiced a lot more, gave cello more of a commitment,” Shriver says. “Her focus was split between me and the cello.”
“It does divide attention,” replies Coburn. “For music students, I’d say it’s really easy to get really focused in the bubble of the music school. People are so focused on promoting yourself, which is what the industry requires. And there’s no time or emotion left for other things.”
However, Coburn began to make her relationship with Shriver a priority and loosen up about her studies. She says it was a learning process.
“It’s just about having a good mentality,” she says. “Like with the music thing, I have to make time for him ... It’s about being intentional with the relationship and with the career.”
“Yeah, the whole relationship at the beginning was very Jacobs and homework-oriented,” Shriver adds. “She’s very level-minded and focused, and I’m this immature Marine with a motorcycle and tattoos – complete opposites of who we are. I feel like she has helped me to mature.”
“He’s more level-minded now,” Coburn smiles.
“And I brought out her...unlevel-mindedness?” Shriver says as Coburn, smiling, shakes her head.
“We balance each other,” she says.
