You probably already know it wasn’t exactly love at first sight (for Cecelia at least lol). Picture it… Cinco de Mayo 2016, Hairy Tony’s Bar in Cortland, NY. Cecelia was visiting SUNY Cortland for the weekend before graduating college. Ryan was a student enjoying Cinco de Mayo at a bar on Main St. This wasn’t the first time Cecelia was visiting Cortland that year, but each time she visited she had tried to track down her friend Mike who also went to Cortland (if you haven’t met Mike Kollmer yet, he’s not exactly easy to get ahold of when there’s a party or drinking going on). Cecelia texted Mike that night in 2016 to try to get their groups of friends together at one of the bars. As Cecelia and her friends were walking down Main St, Mike managed to answer her at the perfect time. He said “we’re all at Hairy Tony’s, come”, Cecelia happened to be walking past that bar at the time she got the text message. Cecelia turned to the group, explained she wanted to run in to see her friend, and she’d be right back out. Cecelia ran down the steps of the bar, fueled by excitement about finally seeing her friend (or possibly fueled by tequila, maybe a combination of both). She saw Mike, jumped up and gave him a huge hug. Suddenly a blonde boy dressed in the same outfit as Mike tapped her on the shoulder, looked at her and asked “who the f*** are you?”. Cecelia turned her head, looked at this boy, smirked, and replied “who the f*** are you?”. Cecelia left the bar after that interaction and rejoined her friends for the night out. Little did she know, after she left the boy named Ryan turned to Mike and said “umm who was that hot blonde chick?”. Mike replied “oh that’s my friend from home”. From that moment on Ryan would always have a thing for "that hot blonde chick". From that night in the bar, Ryan and Cecelia built a friendship based on laughter, sarcasm, and a little too much competitiveness. Over the next 3.5 years, that friendship that always had a little too much flirting turned to love.