There is nothing on the planet quite like an HBCU homecoming.

The exciting tailgates with red Solo cups and good eats in abundance, the can’t miss halftime show (better known as the 5^th quarter), the feel-good brunches, the lit parties, the impromptu Swag Surfin’ that can happen anywhere the mood hits, the energetic Divine 9 step shows, the multigenerational beauty of alumni chopping it up with current students, the hugs that assure you although life is life-ing, everything is going to be alright. Oh…and the football game. The atmosphere is equally empowering and spiritual because in between all the joyous celebrations, we are reminded of the brilliance and tenacity of our brave, visionary ancestors who built HBCUs more than a century ago. The pride is palpable.

In honor of this joyous and celebratory time for our culture, we’re honoring those couples who graduated from HBCUs, sometimes even on the same campus, and are now living their best lives together. Our Love on the Yard series is an intentional and necessary spotlight on Black love, Black excellence and Black joy!

COUPLE: Kalisha & Kevan Turman

COLLEGE ATTENDED: Lincoln University of Pennsylvania

MAJORS: Kalisha: Psychology + Kevan: English Education

CLASS OF: Kalisha, 2002 + Kevan, 2001

PROFESSIONS: Kevan: Vice President at a college in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Kalisha: Works in Student Success at a college in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

YEAR THEY BECAME A COUPLE: 2000

HOW IT ALL STARTED: Kevan: Kalisha and I met her freshman year and my sophomore year. I was an RA and brought a group of my freshman guys over to Lorraine Hansberry Hall for a meet-and-greet with the freshman women. I saw Kalisha across the room, caught that smile, and apparently filed it away for future reference. That’s where our story began—but it took us about three years to finally become a couple in 2000.

WHAT THEY LOVE MOST ABOUT EACH OTHER: Kevan: What I love most about Kalisha is how fiercely she loves. My wife is protective of me in a way that leaves absolutely no room for interpretation. She will tell anybody who will listen that I’m the nice one in this relationship and she means it! I’m usually the one saying, “Baby, it’s okay,” while she’s already prepared to risk it all on my behalf.

But underneath that fire is an incredibly thoughtful, loyal and loving woman. She has believed in me, protected our family, challenged me when I needed it and stood beside me through every version of who I’ve been… from a broke college student trying to figure life out to the man I am today. There is something powerful about being loved by someone who knew you before the titles, accomplishments and everything else the world eventually gets to see.

Kalisha: What I love most about Kevan is his heart. He has always had this enormous capacity for people…his family, his friends, his students, the people he mentors and the communities he serves. He is ambitious and driven, but the part people may not always see is how deeply he cares.

And yes, he is definitely the nice one! I know that about my husband, which is precisely why I have no problem being the one who makes sure nobody mistakes his kindness for weakness. We balance each other. He may be the diplomat, and I may be…let’s just say, the enforcement division. After all these years, I still believe in him, I still want to protect him, and I still genuinely like the man I married.

DO YOU ATTEND HOMECOMING TOGETHER? Both: Absolutely. This isn’t even really a question in our house.

Lincoln is our school, and we don’t play about Homecoming. It gives us a chance to reconnect with lifelong friends; laugh about the people we were back then and spend time on the same campus where so much of our story began.

There is something special about walking the yard together all these years later. We aren’t just going back to an alma mater, we’re returning to a place that helped shape us individually and ultimately gave us each other. And when we get together with our Lincoln friends, it doesn’t matter how much time has passed. Within about five minutes, everybody is right back in college again.

DESCRIBE BEING IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH A FELLOW HBCU GRAD.
Both: One of the greatest joys is that we remember each other before all of this.

Before careers, titles, children, mortgages and adult responsibilities, we were just two broke college students at Lincoln who fell in love. We know where each other came from because we were there.

Kevan had the car in college and worked three jobs, which meant he could get us to the date, but that didn’t necessarily mean he could always afford the date! Kalisha somehow always had some money. We would be sitting at a restaurant and, without saying a word, she would ball some cash up in her hand, reach under the table and tap Kevan on the knee. He’d take the money and pay the bill like everything was handled.

She never made a big deal about it. She knew he wanted to take her out and pay, and she found a way to help without bruising his young-man ego. Looking back, that little exchange probably says a lot about the relationship we would eventually build. We learned very early that sometimes one person has the car, the other person has the cash, and together you figure it out.

That’s part of what being married to a fellow HBCU graduate means to us. We share more than a degree or a Homecoming tradition. We share a cultural experience, a community and a history. We can look at each other today and still see those two students walking across Lincoln’s campus trying to figure out who they were going to become.

More than two decades later, we’ve built careers, raised a family and experienced successes that those two broke college students probably couldn’t have imagined. But at the center of it all, we’re still those two Lincoln students who chose each other.

And every Homecoming, we get to go back to where it all started. Lastly, our son is a junior at Morehouse College and our daughter is a freshman at North Carolina A&T State University so HBCU Love produces HBCU love.

Read the original article on Essence.