We had just been sent home from college because of Covid, and our university decided they would put on their own version of the popular hit TV show, Love is Blind, where students would virtually enter and "date" without seeing each other or knowing each other's real names. Aniya and Jordan both ended up on the show, so here's the story, from both sides, of how they met and fell in love: Aniya: I hadn't heard that my school was putting this on, but two of my roommates, Kierra Regis and Aris Stovall, had heard of it and texted the group chat saying I should do it. I was hesitant, but my friends were very persuasive, so I figured I'd do it. I didn't think I would meet anyone I liked, but i'm always down for a little experiment and thought, if anything, my friends and I would laugh about this looking back. I recorded my intro way too many times and almost gave up on entering at all, but my mom told me "It's not that serious, just submit it" so I did, not even 100% sure this was real and confident I wouldn't get picked anyway. A couple days later I got an email saying I had been selected to be a contestant on the "show", but the time of my first date conflicted with my class so I responded and told them to give it to the next girl up because it didn't fit into my schedule. The host told me they would bump my first date up an hour for me to attend, and so I agreed to be on the show as "Rose", and the very first date I had was with Jordan, who went by Nathan for the show purposes. It sounds so silly but I knew from our first conversation that I liked him and, even though I didn't know his real name or what he looked like, I felt it in my soul that I was supposed to meet him and that he was going to be in my life for years to come. I told the hosts to keep the dates going with "Nathan", and through conversations about family, religion, date nights, goals and aspirations, and more, I realized this was the exact man I prayed about, brought to me in the most unconventional way. I told the hosts that I wanted to have Nathan revealed to me at the end of this, and hoped that the chemistry would translate in "real life". When we saw each other for the first time on zoom, the first words out of my mouth were "OMG I am SO glad you aren't weird looking!" and here we are 5 years later! Jordan: My friends are really big pranksters, so when they heard about this show they thought it was the perfect opportunity to play a prank on me. I got a text from my friends saying they had a school assignment due and needed me to send over a video of myself giving my school intro. Unbeknownst to me, they submitted my video to the UMBC is Blind hosts. I initially was not selected as a contestant, but my friends emailed the hosts and forced them to add me into the show, using methods that I will not disclose. On the day of my first date they came clean about their ridiculous prank and asked if I would follow through with joining the show. To say I was pissed would be an understatement, and I almost backed out, but I figured why not, and went through with it. My first call was Aniya, introduced to me as Rose, and honestly it was fire sparks from the first time we spoke. We could feel the connection right away and we kept requesting to talk to each other. Eventually we were revealed to each other, with real names and faces, and I have never been more thankful for a silly prank in my life