The Wildcat Events Board hosted An Evening of Love at Gallagher Theater Tuesday with self-proclaimed love guru David Coleman to help students with their love troubles.

The event was free and meant to teach students about relationships, break-ups, hook-ups and, most importantly, love.

Michele Rizzo, director of the WEB Speakers committee, found Coleman at the National Association for Campus Activities over winter break.

“I think a lot of students will learn to be more confident with themselves,” Rizzo said.

Coleman has been named National Collegiate Speaker of the Year 14 times by Campus Activities Magazine and NACA combined. He kept the audience laughing during the event while also giving advice to students looking for love.

“You will not find the right person until you become the right person,” Coleman said.

Coleman encouraged students in realizing they are good enough to be loved by someone, and his tactics were meant to help the audience relax when talking about such an emotional subject. 

During his speech Coleman frequently interacted with his audience, referring to himself as Will Smith’s character from the movie “Hitch” and the audience as Kevin James.

Coleman allowed for questions, such as how to get over a break-up or how to end a toxic relationship, and gave out chocolate to students who made him laugh or smile. 

Adam Caballero, a deaf studies sophomore, said his favorite part of the event was when Coleman asked the students to fill out their Johari Window, in which he asked the audience to describe their favorite animal, color and body of water. 

According to Coleman, your favorite animal represents how you want to be, color is how you see yourself and body of water is how you view sex. The exercise created a lot of banter within the audience when their answers were either very wrong or very accurate.

Coleman also gave advice to students who were in long-distance relationships, talking about when such relationships are potentially worth the struggle and how to make them work.

“Fifty percent of long distance relationships fail within the first year,” Coleman said.

The relationship could survive if the long-distance factor did not last too long, and if each person sees their significant other at least once every two months, according to Coleman.

“I loved learning about the ABCs of initial interest,” said Sarah Patterson, a sophomore studying linguistics and French, about the event.

Coleman explained that, when initially meeting someone, people must think about attraction, believability, chemistry and desire. If they pass these requirements, have a conversation with them for one hour to really see if they are someone worth sticking around for, Coleman said.

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