On a beautiful Saturday in February, Mitch was out with some friends at the bar to watch the Michigan State basketball game. Mitch was still in East Lansing after graduating the prior spring and was now working on his master’s degree at MSU. Mitch was enjoying watching the game at Fieldhouse, a popular bar in East Lansing, when he saw one of his friends talking to a random girl and heard his name mentioned. His friend had said, “What about Mitch?”. Curious about what was going on, Mitch turned and joined the conversation. He introduced himself while wondering what were they talking about -- who was this random girl? This was in fact Hailey’s younger sister Lexie, who was a senior at Michigan State at the time. Within 30 minutes of meeting Lexie, who at the time was obsessed with Hailey’s dating life, she had sent a picture of Mitch into her family group chat saying, “Hailey I just met your future husband.” The reason why this was perfect timing was that Hailey had just recently sworn off dating and wanted to take some time to be single. She had just graduated from the University of Michigan the prior Spring and was enjoying the freedom of her post-grad life. She replied bluntly to Lexie that she was not interested in going on a date with this random guy and to leave her and her dating life alone. Lexie, being stubborn as always, told Mitch that Hailey would be happy to go on a date with him. Knowing that Hailey had put her dating life on pause, Mitch wanted to give the situation some time to play out. After a few weeks Mitch decided to reach out to Hailey about going on that date. After Lexie talked it over with her, Hailey agreed to go. She said that she was only going because Lexie had already told Mitch she would go, but that she wouldn’t commit to anything beyond one date. She responded to him and told him that she would love to meet up, so Mitch drove over an hour to meet her for some pizza in Ferndale. However, because of COVID restrictions in place at the time, they had to sit outside on that starry, but very cold night. It was so cold that when they got up to leave, they could barely walk because their legs were so numb. However, even with the cold conditions the connection was there and the rest was history. After nearly a year of doing long distance across the state, Mitch finished up his master’s degree and took a job in downtown Detroit. He moved in with some friends in the Royal Oak area to be closer to his job and of course, Hailey. Being closer to one another, they were able to enjoy many fun weeknights and weekend trips together. Spending more time with one another helped them realize that they wanted to take things further. Two and a half years after meeting on that cold night in Ferndale, the two of them are proud homeowners and parents to their wonderful dog Penny.