At first glance our story is similar to many others these days, we met online! From Ryan's perspective it all started with a simple message online, but from Katherine's perspective it started much earlier...

In the summer of 2011 online dating was the new craze, or at least that's what I tell myself. I hadn't had any luck in the real world, so I decided to give the cyber world a shot. After doing a little research, I settled on OKCupid!...it was free! Online dating was more classy and civilized back then, you couldn't simply swipe left or right, you had to impress your match with an intriguing, witty first message or else you were doomed. One night in August of 2011, upon coming back from the bar I went on OKCupid! and to my surprise came across a very beautiful brunette from New York. Here was my chance to impress with my first message: "Mets or Yankees?" …No chance she was going to write back. But wait...she did respond. And so our story started. I quickly learned that Katherine was studying speech pathology at Emerson. I knew that my younger sister's close friend from high school, Erica, was also in the same program at Emerson. I quickly texted Erica to learn about Katherine, and she gave the thumbs up. Through more messaging with Katherine, I learned that not only were her and Erica in the same program, but they also were roommates. What are the chances, "it must be fate" I thought. I planned our first date, a muggy, humid September night. Sweating through my pastel purple button up, I showed up at her front door in Beacon Hill. I was interested in coming in to say hello to Erica. I was denied. (Later on I learned that they had a bed bug scare that night). The night went on and despite me needing to make several trips to the restroom to wipe off my constantly perspiring forehead, we quickly hit it off, making each other laugh with ease. Skip ahead to October 1st, we were getting ready to go out and I asked "How do I introduce myself", we decided I'd be introduced as her "boyfriend", so October 1st became our anniversary. Around that same time, Katherine broke some startling news to me, my "Mets or Yankees?" message wasn't the first time she had heard of me...

The timeline of how Ryan and I met is QUITE remarkable and full of small world moments, which I frequently smile from ear to ear at when I think back to how things unfolded for us. It really dates back to 2010 in college when I officially decided that I would be moving to Boston for graduate school with my dear friend Erica. We had spent that summer apartment hunting, buying furniture, etc. Erica and I spent one of our last weekends before grad school together on Long Island, wrapping things up before our big move. We decided to go into the city for a night out and I met Erica's best friend Shannon who lived in Astoria at the time. A month later, I had officially packed a U-haul and moved to Boston! Our first year of graduate school was as intense as everyone said it would be with little room for socialization let alone dating. Despite the demands, many of the girls in my program were heavily invested in online dating, which at the time consisted of one website known as OKCupid! I was super content focusing solely on school and exploring a new city and to be honest... I was NOT that into the online dating scene. One random night, Erica and I were getting our froyo fix and talking about relationships when she out of nowhere had this look of revelation on her face and blurted out that I could be a great match for this guy Ryan Sieber. That guy was Shannon’s brother. The same girl that I met the Summer before moving to Boston. The same girl that was Erica's best friend. The same girl that I had zero idea would become my sister-in-law. Erica immediately logged on to Facebook and showed me Ryan's pictures. Blonde, cute, athletic, great smile. I said to her, “he’s cute, but I'm not crazy about blondes!” Erica laughed ...and I moved on.

A year later, I was in full graduate school mode with harder classes and more intense clinical placements. If I wasn’t in a position to be dating in year 1, it was not now in year 2. Of course – some things you just cannot plan for. My OKCupid! profile was finally set up with the help of my friends and I ultimately decided that a few dates could not hurt. A few dates that led to nowhere until I received a message at 2 AM from this blonde, cute, athletic guy with a great smile. It was Ryan Sieber asking me if I like Mets or Yankees. What a pickup line! I practically spit out my drink and immediately called Erica who was with her sister. Their exact instructions were “DO NOT TELL HIM WHO YOU ARE and DO NOT TELL HIM THAT YOU KNOW WHO HE IS!” …the reason for this was simple: it would be awkward. Well – I did NOT tell him who I was and played as dumb as they come. Our conversation went something like this... 1.) Katherine tells Ryan she goes to Emerson College 2.) Ryan tells Katherine his sister’s friend goes to Emerson College 3.) Katherine asks the name of said person 4.) Ryan says Erica Wade 5.) Katherine plays dumb 6.) Katherine says “WOW what a small world…that’s my roommate” 7.) Ryan quickly texts Erica to do a brief background check on her 8.) Katherine is on the phone with Erica while Ryan is texting Erica 9.) Ryan determines Katherine is normal and a real person 10.) Katherine is laughing 11.) Ryan asks Katherine out on date 12.) Katherine does NOT tell Ryan that she knows who he is, stalked his FaceBook with Erica and met his sister Shannon over a year ago.

Our first date was in Beacon Hill on the muggiest night of the year in September when just hours earlier Erica and I were having a five-alarm crisis inside our apartment thinking we had bed bugs. We found what is known as a rice weevil (shout out to the Entomologist who opened his store just for us on Labor Day) in our apartment and were convinced it was a bed bug. Erica and I had spent the day packing up all of our clothes, linens and towels into plastic bags, flipping our mattresses up and vacuuming from room to room. It was a complete disaster. Ryan insisted that he would love to come up and say hi to Erica who he had not seen in a while and I lied saying she was sick (off to a great start!). Ryan and I walked to the restaurant, profusely sweating and probably in dire need of a beverage to calm our nerves - as first dates can be a bit overwhelming. Conversation was easy, laughing was natural and our chemistry was undeniable. I remember laying in bed that night after an amazing date with this feeling in my belly. It was butterflies – in that good and not so good way because I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe that I was going to now have to balance graduate school and potentially a relationship… because I just had this funny, crazy, scary, wild, excited feeling that Ryan could be the one. P.S. I did tell Ryan that I knew him all along... about a month later... when we officially became a couple :)