Staff Writer
Jordan Lindsey claims to have the hair of a surfer, the beauty of a rich blond girl and the attitude of a rapper from Compton. Why else would he have been picked to travel to Southern California to pitch Corban University to high schoolers? An admissions counselor, Lindsey just completed his first travel season to SoCal and loved it, mostly because it offered him the chance to have a second honeymoon, and, yes, his wife did go with him.
Lindsey and his wife, Leah, were married on Sept. 4, exactly 31 days after Corban’s Admissions Office hired him. The couple went on a 10-day honeymoon to California, only to return for a few days before departing together to complete Lindsey’s visits to schools along the Oregon Coast. Then, on Sept. 26 the pair returned to Southern California – via a flight into LAX – and that’s when Lindsey knew he “had arrived.”
For three weeks, the Lindseys stayed in a different hotel every night and ate out three times a day. There were no honeymoon suites on this trip, and the $30-dollar-per-day meal budget per day was less than ideal, but the newlyweds found ways to make it work.
Navigating airports, rental car, and strange cities is a challenge to most couples, but try having to find multiple high schools every day on top of it all.
“I’m someone who gets pretty stressed and very nervous,” admits Lindsey, explaining that getting to each school on a tight schedule proved challenging.
“A GPS is a lifesaver,” he said. “It’s one of the best investments of my life, only behind my Bible and my wife’s engagement ring.”
During his visits to high schools and college fairs, Lindsey found the students and staff faculty in Southern California to be friendly. And while he shared reasons for students to come to Corban, his wife stayed in the car, occupying herself as best she could.
“It was kind of a boring three weeks for her,” said Lindsey.
Some students took Lindsey off-guard, like the girl who asked whether Corban requires church attendance. Lindsey responded it’s not required, but that Corban highly recommends students to get involved in a church while attending. The student proceeded to tell him how God didn’t want her going to church because her mom got them in a car accident coming home from church one time, and she hasn’t gone since.
After work, Lindsey and his wife took advantage of being in L.A. to visit the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Lindsey even battled a flamboyant Michael Jackson impersonator to get a picture of his hero’s star on the sidewalk. Not to be ignored, SoCal heat was another part of the trip, with it reaching 113 degrees one day.
Overall, Lindsey said there was no way he could have done his school visits without his wife, and having her there proved to be quite the extended honeymoon. His overall impression of California? “Not what Katy Perry says it is.”