Caitlin and Ben managed to overlap 4 years at Stanford without ever meeting there. Instead, they met on a dating app during the height of the pandemic. They had their first date socially-distanced at opposite ends of a picnic blanket outside the Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco. Caitlin and Ben spent the early days of their relationship in their 2-person bubble, alternating between shelter-in-place at Caitlin’s apartment in Mountain View and Ben’s apartment in Berkeley. It was clear they were meant to be when they didn’t strangle each other. Ben proposed to Caitlin on their anniversary in July 2022, at the site of their first date. They moved to Illinois at the end of 2022 for Ben’s new job as a professor at UIUC, and have been enjoying settling into their new town.