Katherine and my story is anything but conventional. One day as a high school freshman, I was lucky enough to be randomly friended on FB by a cute girl from O’Connell named Katherine Ballington. She introduced herself and we messaged each other for a couple of days. I can assure you that the conversation is extremely embarrassing. That was the last we “talked” for years until one day Junior year, my friend, Frank Sikorsky, and I were hanging out and we started talking about the upcoming prom, our plans, and our dates. His date was a cute O’Connell girl that he saw playing soccer everyday while walking his dog. He showed me a picture and I recognized Katherine. She was definitely more beautiful than I remembered; I realized that I had to meet her. On Prom night, I quickly met Katherine. Again, that would be the last we “talked” for years. I went to Tulane after high school while Katherine went to the University of Virginia. I had many friends at UVa and always visited whenever I was back home in DC. Spring of 2015, our Junior year, I was making one of my bi-annual UVa visits. While my UVa friends were in class, I wasted some time swiping through Tinder and Katherine and I matched. We realized that we knew each other and decided to meet that night at one of the local bars. That night was filled with tons of catching up, dancing, drinking at Trinity, and walking the lawn gardens. Truly a perfect night. The night ended and I walked her home. When saying goodnight, I asked her out for the following weekend when she’d be home for Easter. She miraculously accepted to dinner at Pizza Paradiso, drinks at on the W Hotel rooftop, and walking the monuments at night. I successfully courted her with my dad jokes (thanks Steve) and the rest is history. Since then, we have eaten and drank our hearts out, traveled the world, endured 3 years of long-distance, survived each other’s stubbornness, and adopted a beautiful puppy; life couldn’t be more perfect.