“It was a Wednesday, and Ryder had spent the afternoon at the movie theater alone. Although Ryder had gone to many movies alone as part of the coursework in his Cinematic Arts studies, this particular day he noticed an empty feeling when leaving to head back to campus alone. He made plans to hang out with some friends once back, but just couldn’t shake the feeling, so decided to just head back to his apartment for bed. On his way off campus, he noticed his friend Josh through a window playing Uno with a group of people, some he knew, and some he didn’t. He decided to pop in for a little bit and join in the fun. He made eye contact with one particular girl that had caught his attention pretty quickly, and throughout the rest of the game, they continued to make eye contact again and again, prolonged a little more each time. They didn’t chat much at all - but something about basically staring at each other the whole night was enough to motivate Ryder to pursue finding out more about who this girl was. He got back to his apartment, found her on a friend’s Instagram, and started following her. That same day Elo had decided to get out of her dorm room for a bit to hang with her friends Josh and Milla as a distraction to some stress she’d been dealing with for a few days. They were hanging out in one of their favorite spots playing Uno when one of Josh’s friends stopped by to see what they were up to. Elo could not look away, and got caught. But it wasn’t awkward…it was received, and reciprocated. And it continued, all night. After the game was over and Elo got back to her room, she noticed the guy she’d been staring at had started following her on Instagram. So she called Milla and Josh to find out what they knew about him. Unsure if the follow was just him being friendly or more, she decided to take a chance and follow him back. The next night, Elo and her friends decided to take a midnight walk through the campus trails, and just before they got there, Elo saw Ryder hanging with a group of his friends. She immediately turned to Josh and told him to come up with a reason for Ryder to join them. But when Ryder turned around and saw Elo was in the group approaching him, he left his friends and joined Elo’s group without hesitation.” We officially introduced ourselves, talked all night, and never looked back…except at each other. It really was love at first stare, for both of us. 👀

Just a few short weeks after we met and started dating, Ryder became sick and called Elo at 3am to take him to the ER, which she did without hesitation. An older gentlemen who was getting a cancer infusion (and who Ryder had seen there for treatments a few times before), approached the two of us. He said, “I don’t know what your plans are for your future, whether it’s marriage or not, but it’s important you build a strong foundation together. When s*** hits the fan and you don’t know what to do, you want to make sure that the person you’re with will be with you “‘til you’re 90.” He shared that he and his wife made this promise to each other in the very beginning of their love story, and it became the foundation that carried them through every hard turn, argument, and challenge. - “Until we’re 90.” - This became our promise to each other that day, and will now be our vow for every day forward.