The short of it is that we were in the same residence hall in college. The end. The long story is that we met in Physics class second semester of freshman year. We were sitting in the same group of people from our dorm before the start of the first class. However, I did not know Jared yet. He turned and asked me if I wanted to dance. Given it was 9am in a lecture hall, I found this weird and not romantic. I assumed I heard wrong and ignored him. This delayed dating for two years. Just kidding, but it certainly didn't speed up our course of action. Jared actually "helped" set me up with my freshman year boyfriend and he was dating someone at the time himself. Two breakups and one shared Physical Chemistry class later, we were both single and almost ready to mingle (yes, we took that class together; no, it did not pertain to dating). That spring, while captaining my ever competitive intramural flag football team, I received TWO suggestions that my lead receiver, Jared, would make a very cute boyfriend (props, Lopez!). It was fall of junior year when I started to receive text responses from this young stud within an hour rather than within two or three days - truly groundbreaking for Jared. Eye contact with those big doe eyes started to linger... I finally decided to have a little chat with Jared because I realized he himself might never instigate. He clearly enjoyed watching me stumble through my profession, and then, after an eternal moment of self-doubt, he asked "do you want to go skating sometime?" And thus we went on our first date. ................ When we both graduated from the University of Colorado in 2013, Jared worked near Boulder and I stayed another year for more school. When I decided on Northwestern for graduate school and Jared stayed in Colorado, we went into distance with a "let's see where this goes" mentality. Rather than pushing us apart, distance only affirmed that we were in it for the long haul. And, well, here we are.

I worked in the dining hall my freshman year and once a week I’d be assigned to swipe student IDs for breakfast, which is a painfully boring way to spend two to three hours. I would often try to make small talk, but most 18 and 19 year old kids are not very talkative at seven thirty in the morning. To pass the time I would try to memorize peoples names from their student IDs. Since Brit and I lived in the same dormitory, I knew who she was before we first met. The first time I said anything beyond, “good morning … enjoy the pancakes” to Brit was asking her to dance five minutes before a 9am physics lecture. I was laughing with some friends and spontaneously asked the cute girl from the dining hall to dance. I was mostly joking as it would be a little awkward to dance in one of the biggest lecture halls on campus, but I would have gone dancing with Brit later that week, or right there on the spot if she said yes. Brit’s telling of our first date conversation is pretty accurate, but I’ll add that I didn’t necessarily enjoy watching Brit “stumble through” her profession. I’m sure I was smiling since I found out she liked me, and I admired her courage to take the initiative and make things happen. But I also had a tinge of embarrassment since I didn’t have the courage to act when I felt the same way. I have always had a hard time talking about my emotions, I’d get embarrassed to admit that I liked someone and downplay my excitement. Our first date was skating after one of Brit’s hockey games. I remember all of the roommates getting me ready, and standing at the door waving like proud parents, telling me to “be back before 10!” as I left for our first date. I remember all of my friends being excited for me and it was one of the first times that I felt comfortable, almost proud, to admit I liked someone and wanted to start a relationship. Eight years later I'm excited to start the next chapter!