We first met in 2017, in shiny and bright NYC. Myka was 20, I was 23, and we had just arrived in the US to be Au Pairs. Back then, Au Pairs would spend 5 days in NYC in “training school” before going to their Host Families. So, Myka and I met precisely like this: at training school. There, we bonded and became friends. It wasn’t just us though, we also met other amazing people there whom we still love. After our training week was over, we followed different paths. Our friendship prevailed, however. We would FaceTime almost every weekend, especially when we were still figuring out our new lives in our new homes. Even if we were more than 3000 miles away from each other, our friendship matured into something beautiful. Secrets, fears, news, and even “love issues” were shared between us. Even so, it took more than a year for us to see each other again, but when we did, it was like we were back in NYC all over again. It wasn’t on this trip that our feelings changed to something else. It was when Myka visited me in Seattle. I’d be lying if I hadn’t thought about her in a romantic way before, but I was too scared to damage our friendship. Luckily, in Seattle everything changed. We became more than Friends, with an uncertain future. Our personal futures were unpredictable as well, with so many variables. However, after Myka went back to the East Coast, our feelings for each other got stronger each day, and so I decided to visit her before going back to Brazil. In Milford, MA (someday in September) we decided to officially start dating. We were taking it slow, especially since this meant we would be a long-distance couple. I wasn’t planning on living here on the East Coast, I was supposed to stay 6 months in Brazil and go back to Seattle after that. In spite of all this, Myka and I had everything planned: all the trips we would take to see each other and how I’d move here at some point. I came black to the US in March 2020, before everything shutdown because of the pandemic. I changed my flight to Seattle to a different date and decided to stay with her for another month. I did this a couple more times until we decided it would be best if I transferred to a college in MA and stayed here. We had already created a routine living together, so we found a new apartment to call home and to start our new life together. It’s just us, Myka and Teca taking care of our lovely little cat, Ella.