It was the weekend before Halloween in 2018. I walked into a college party I technically wasn’t invited to, where I spotted the cutest Christmas elf I had ever seen. Despite being a firm believer that Christmas should only be celebrated after Thanksgiving, Michael the cute elf and I talked and laughed all night, the next day, and months after that. We officially began dating in January/February of 2019 (although neither of us can remember the exact date). We would spend almost all of our free time together throughout the rest of college, until Michael graduated in December of 2019 and moved back to Arizona. I remained on campus for my last semester of school, but missed Michael terribly and decided to spend my two-week spring break visiting him. I showed up at the airport with only a plethora of excitement and a carry-on suitcase. That was March 2020. Little did we know, my return flight home would be cancelled, and I would be staying for much longer than initially intended. Suddenly, we were together 24/7 with no escape from each other as we waited out the pandemic. As you may have guessed, thankfully it all worked out great.

In October of 2018, Jenna and I met at a Halloween party at my best friend's house. She was originally invited because one of the host’s saw Jenna’s roommate walking her puppy outside, so imagine our surprise when they showed up without the puppy. Needless to say, we had an amazing time and I immediately connected with Jenna. We sat and talked together about video games while her roommate was getting annoyed because she couldn’t add anything to our conversation. Over time, Jenna would spend more and more time at my apartment up until the school year ended. Me having one more semester left, and Jenna having another year left, we of course told our parents we would be living separately while I might have only actually slept twice at my apartment. In December 2019, I graduated from Purdue and got a job out in Scottsdale, Arizona; so safe to say we were keeping in touch every minute of every day. In March 2020, Jenna had spring break so of course we flew her out to visit me. Well, in March 2020 something else happened in the world as well, and to make a long story short, Jenna ended up living in my apartment in Arizona for the next 3 months out of a single carry-on. She even graduated from my apartment choosing to celebrate in Animal Crossing rather than watching her commencement livestream. And the two of us couldn't have been happier spending every waking moment with each other.