Andrew Brown
Appearances
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Love Hurts SLAM
This story goes out to my wife, who I love very much, and encouraged me to come up and tell my story.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Love Hurts SLAM
So I was a pretty prolific high school student. Won many awards, scholarships for university. There was one event, though, that was sort of like the Oscars, where you didn't actually know who was the winner. So everyone was sort of blinded to the results. Basically, I'm sitting in the front row. And there's an award that I think I'm going to win. And I hear my name, Andrew.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Love Hurts SLAM
And I start to button up my suit jacket and get ready to accept my award. And the announcer finishes the sentence. Andrea Black. And I'm furious because this woman has the feminized version of my name, Andrew. And she also has a color for the last name, Black. My last name is Brown. So I leave this event furious. I'm in the back of the car. My mom's like, why are you so angry?
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Love Hurts SLAM
I'm like, I just lost. And for the next few months, if I received a scholarship letter and I didn't win, I thought to myself, Andrea Black probably won it. And for years, this was in the back of my mind, years in the back of my mind. And so I'm in my first year of medical school, and a friend of mine is like, you know, we should try this website out. It's called POF, Plenty of Fish.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Love Hurts SLAM
I don't know if you guys have heard of it. And so I'm like, yeah, sure, whatever. I'll try it out. And the first person I messaged, really cool person, aligns very much with my goals. She likes philosophy. She seems very educated. I think it's a good match. And we start to have a bit of a conversation. And we sent emails over the winter break. She asks me, tell me a bit about yourself.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Love Hurts SLAM
And I say, you know, I'm from this town, Mississauga. I have a key to the city. And she's like, key to the city? Hmm, I got to Google this. So she Googles me, and she sees my name, Andrew Brown. And she says, ha, ha, ha, look how funny that is. My name's Andrew Black. Your name's Andrew Brown. Ha, ha, ha, isn't that funny? And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, like capital letters.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Love Hurts SLAM
Is this the Andrea Black? Like angry capital letters. And I was like, were you at this event in 2003? Were you at this event? And she's like, yeah, that was me. And so for years, I carried this hate in my heart for this Andrea Black. And we had an opportunity to meet. We had dinner, and it was fantastic. I was able to sort of take a step back, and you know, it was years ago.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Love Hurts SLAM
I thought I'd give her a chance. And she was a great person. And at our wedding, her... Her father was actually able to find videotape from 2003. where Andrew's accepting her award, she's going up the stage and she's getting her award, shaking hands. And then Andrew Brown, he's coming up to the stage and shuts off the camera. Didn't even take a photo of me, like it was crazy.
The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: The Love Hurts SLAM
And this is at our wedding and people are like, ah, it's so funny. And it brought back all those feelings of resentment and fear and hatred. But I can say I do love my wife very much, we're doing fine, we've gotten over that hurdle. Sometimes it's a problem, but for the most part, I think we're doing all right. Thanks so much.