We first met one morning during our nursing school clinical at St. Linus School. We were standing across from each other, screening students for Covid symptoms on their way in. He took the forehead temperature of a kid with a thermometer that didn’t work and told them, “you’re good”, allowing them to pass. What a chill guy. Once the foot traffic died down and classes began where we were left with little to do, we made small talk. It was uninteresting but he was very nice and smiled a lot. That was that for a while. Eventually I added him on IG just because we had mutual friends and he seemed cool. He slid into my DMs straight away like a Slip N’ Slide wave rider. I’m pretty sure he asked if I wanted to get ramen and I’m usually down to get dinner with friends so I agreed. He then tried to indirectly obtain my number and asked, “#”? Since he was so smooth with it, I gave it to him. We went to Slurpin Ramen Bar and although it was extremely mid, he slurped it all up as if he wasn’t on a first date. He was so comfortable that I felt comfortable. It was honestly his nose ring that captured my attention. We got soju nearby and were saying bye when I realized I lost my phone. He helped me sign into Find My Friends to locate it. Our date was extended by our hunt for my phone, which I eventually got back thanks to his help! I had fun despite everything and wanted to hang out with him again. Valentine’s Day was coming up so we agreed to be each other’s valentine which was pretty funny because we had just met. He planned a lot of cute dates which was great because not making decisions is my passion. Eventually he asked me to be his girlfriend with Crocs and sushi. We became best friends with a shared love for each other and food. The rest is history!

The first time we met was a full circle appointment for me in my life. We were both at clinicals for nursing school at St. Linus Catholic School, which was especially meaningful since I had gone there from 1st through 8th grade. Anyways Kristen and I were assigned to a 5th grade classroom of kids and the only thing I managed to say to her at the time was “Hi, class is fun huh”. After that interaction we really didn’t talk much that day. The next encounter I had with Kristen was one random night while out with my friends. I look at my phone and see I received a new Instagram follow from “Nicolle.kristen”. It was HER. With the power of liquid courage that night I messaged her and said we should hangout. Luckily, she said. Our first date was one I’ll never forget. We went out for ramen and some drinks. As the night was ending, I was taking her back to her car when she realized she lost her phone. After searching around for hours we found it back at the restaurant where we got soju. I would almost call it fate that we met at this time and from there everything just fell into place. We kept spending time together and it didn’t take long for me to realize how special she was. Now we’re here, getting ready for the next chapter of our lives, and I couldn’t be more excited!