Our story begins our second year at the University of Virginia when I first saw Katie in our microeconomics lecture hall. She was sitting next to a friend of mine that I assumed was a coincidence, but turned out, they were friends as well. The subsequent week, our class was assigned homework groups, and by happenstance, we were assigned to the same group. After strongly encouraging our mutual friend to ask her about me, I was informed that she was possibly interested. I spent the next few weeks pretending I was incapable of solving our homework sets and constantly nagged her for help, which led to our first Facetime call, and eventual first “date”, as I refer to it, at the Newcomb dining hall. From that moment, we were inseparable. At first, our conversations focused mainly on our coursework, but as the days went on, they transitioned more into learning about each other, our families, friends, goals, and our weird quirks and passions. After about a month, Katie questioned whether I was ever going to formally ask her to be my girlfriend, to which I replied, “I guess I just assumed you already were!”

 

We spent the next few years at UVA glued to one another. We scheduled our coursework together, went on dates to cheap fast-food restaurants, and spent a considerable amount of time at the local AMC theater. Halfway through our fourth year, we found ourselves quarantined together in the ghost town that became Charlottesville where we experienced what a life would look like outside of college. Following graduation, our next chapter brought us to Arlington, VA where we moved into apartments across the street from one another, followed by a year living in the same building directly across the hall, and finally deciding to move in together. Moving in definitely brings its challenges, especially when it’s in a one-bedroom apartment; however, the transition felt seamless after the many years that had prepared us.