Hannah and I met in the fall of our senior year of college at the University of Dayton through a series of encounters with mutual friends. We started texting regularly and had our first coffee date on October 9th, 2019 (7 years and 1 day before our wedding!). We decided to make things official on November 7th, 2019, and were inseparable from the start. That winter break, we visited each other’s family homes in Detroit and Cleveland, and continued dating through our spring semester. Some of our favorite memories at UD include TV Dinner playing one of their final shows in the Village; Jazz Night at Raymond’s (also known as Jack DeStephano’s basement on Plumwood); and countless 1v1 basketball games at the RecPlex.

By March 2020, the world had shut down, and Hannah moved back to Cleveland to finish the semester at her parents’ house. However, she still made trips to Dayton to visit and soon was quarantining with the boys (myself, my cat, Rufus, and my roommates) as we wrapped up our lease. Those months were filled with lots of disc golf and frequent stops at the Shell beer cave on Main Street. After I graduated in May, we set out on a two-week road trip, car camping our way along Michigan’s West Coast and Upper Peninsula. After two weeks of living together in a smelly, one-person tent, we knew we had something that would last.

In the fall of 2020, Hannah returned to Dayton to complete her final semester, while I moved to Cincinnati for a new job and to be closer to Hannah. After graduation, Hannah accepted a position in Cincinnati and joined me in the city we now call home. Hannah initially lived with close friends (Abby, Troy, and Gwen) in Hyde Park/O’Bryonville, while I lived just a half mile down the road on Madison with our friend Zach (confusing, we know). In 2021, Hannah purchased a home in Northside. I, Zach, and another close friend, Logan, moved in while Hannah found a sublet for her old room. Hannah still laughs thinking back to telling her grandma about the living arrangement. Her grandma, Mary Jo, didn’t miss a beat: “Well that’s great news, but who’s sharing a room? There are four people and only three bedrooms in that house of yours.” By early 2024, our friends had moved out of the home, and Hannah and I began settling into a new routine together. On October 20th, 2024, I proposed to Hannah while we were exploring the mountainous town of Hakone, Japan. Shortly after returning to the States, we adopted a scruffy dog named Seymour, who has been Hannah’s sidekick (and attempted running partner) ever since. Most recently, we purchased an old fixer-upper home in Northside and have laughed through the house and barn renovation projects together. Life has been nothing short of an adventure, and we can’t wait to see what’s next.