Their story started on a warm August night in Florence, Italy. They were both 18 year old nervous freshman at NYU Florence looking to make new friends and start the new chapter of their lives in college. In the common room of Villa Natalia, Josh was playing foosball and Dora was in a large group of classmates socializing. Dora remembers the big circle of strangers exchanging names and hometowns in the customary way young students try to project confidence and coolness. She looked around the room of strangers and knew she wanted to escape the pleasantries and find someone to really talk to. She turned around and saw two boys at a foosball table, and noticed one boy who was losing but still had a huge smile on his face. After a second of hesitation, Dora got the courage to walk up to the table and promptly asked Josh if he needed any help. Josh remembers Dora coming over to the foosball table and winning game after game. Even though his skills at the table weren't great, Josh instantly felt comfortable with her. They chatted about where they were from as the white ball flew around the table. Josh told her he’d actually been to Rhode Island before, and loved it! They spent the rest of the night talking with each other on a bean bag chair in the corner of the room. Josh regaled stories of his high school band, and Dora pretended that was the coolest thing she had ever heard. In a blur of excitement, Josh sent Dora a Facebook friend request before she even had a chance to go back upstairs to her dorm room. The next day, they were in the same orientation group, and everyone thought they were lifelong friends the way they already had inside jokes and an effortless comfortability with each other. Their relationship grew as they studied and traveled the world together. They went to amazing new places and tried all the foods they had dreamt of. After their freshman year abroad, they went back to NYC and eventually graduated from NYU hand in hand. After working in the city and living through the pandemic, Josh and Dora both went to graduate school to get their masters’ degrees. Dora attended Cornell University and Josh studied at Columbia University. Although in the same state, they endured the long distance of miles apart. They both would make the trip to each other when they lived in different places. This challenge brought them closer together as they built their relationship on long weekends and even longer nightly Facetime calls. They continued traveling around the world and never stopped feeling like those two kids who met on the first day of school. Nine years after the day they met, Josh proposed on a small beach just a few miles away from Dora’s childhood home in Rhode Island.