for the record, it's "Chay"

Chay with a "CH"

Like church, choo choo train, challenge, charge, Chia pet "cha cha cha chia"

For some reason, many like to call Chay "Shay".

He is too nice to correct them. In fact sometimes he just calls himself "Shay" so there doesn't have to be a drawn out explanation or conversation about his name.

For example: When I first met Chay. I met him in Portuguese Literature Class in college

April: "Oh by the way, what's your name again?"
Chay: "It's Chay"
April: "Chay? Like Chay?"
Chay: "Yes, like Chay."
April: "Really? Well that's a cool name. I've never met a Chay before"
Chay: "well now you have"
April: "Where did that name come from?"
(here goes the explaining)
Chay: "It's Navajo- it means "friend"."
April: "Oh my gosh, that's cool, it means "friend?" Are you a good friend then?"
Chay: "it's actually slang for "friend"- the real translation for "Chay" is "Grandpa" in Navajo".
April: "oh...Grandpa?"
April: "Are you an Indian?"
Chay: "no, I'm not an Indian. My Dad served a mission on a Navajo Indian Reservation"
April: "ok, well that's cool. so Chay, if you borrow my Portuguese book, when will I get it back?"



Today Chay is 28.

When I first met Chay he was this simple respectful put together kind of guy. He didn't start coming to class with a bedhead until maybe 3-4 weeks into the semester. But still- it didn't really bother me- nor did his red hooded sweatshirt that he wore I think every single day of his life for that first semester.

I didn't fall for Chay right away. But I knew right away I liked to be around him.

One day I came to class with a "moral reasoning quiz". It was a quiz given to me by my psychology teacher. I was supposed to go around and ask random people to take the quiz and then with the results of their answers, give them their score on how high they reason morally. make sense?

Well of course I was intrigued with this and so I took the quiz to my Portuguese class which so happened to be chuck full of boys. I was the only girl. I whipped out the quiz and started asking the boys sitting around me. Chay was one of the boys.

I can't really remember all of the questions on the quiz but I remember one specifically and how Chay answered differently than the others. I barely knew Chay at the time.

"Why do you keep the honor code?" (ok first of all, BYU-Idaho has an honor code. A ton of things contribute to the honor code, but it is mainly a set of guidelines to help the students stay out of temptation and to help promote the Spirit to stay present in the student's lives as much as possible. So the code contains things such as: inside your apartment by 12:00 AM, no boys in the apartments after 11:00 PM, no boys in the bedrooms, no girls in the bedrooms, and so forth

so I ask the boys, "Why do you keep the honor code?"

Boy #1 "Because my girlfriend does" -low points on the moral scale
Boy #2 "Because I don't want to get in trouble" not so many points here either
Boy #3 "What is the honor code?" disqualified
Boy #4 "I don't keep the honor code- that is so lame" um...ok is there a box to check for 0 points?
Boy #5- who happens to be Chay Clark "it's the right thing to do- why would we even have the honor code if it wasn't a good thing?" What? Who in the heck are you?



So you can see why I was so attracted Chay's personality right from the start. I knew from his answer on the "moral quiz" he was either trying to win me over or he was sincere- I think both.

Chay is full of integrity and honesty. He can't lie worth beans. He is full of a conscience that guards him from any ounce of disloyalty. I know Chay will always make good choices. It is such a relief that I only need to worry about myself and not him in this regard.

This is what I most appreciate about him today.

I love you Chay. Happy Birthday. Now you're only a year younger than me instead of two. I know how you love older women.