One unseasonably warm Valpo evening in February 2016, I just wanted to get into a frat party. Since my friends were dating frat members, I tasked them with finding me a date to get me in, who ended up being Andrew. By the time we got to the party, it had been shut down by police, so we were all deciding what to do. Out of the blue Andrew turned to me and asked, "want to take a walk?" and I said yes. We ended up walking all over Valpo the whole night, staying out until sunrise. 4 months later, we fell in love & decided to take our friendship to the next level. We knew that in 6 months he was leaving to study abroad in Namibia & I'd be getting ready to graduate & move across the country, but we wanted to savor the time we had together. And we did. When he left for Namibia we attempted to stay together, but after only weeks we knew that a long-distance relationship with no end in sight was impossible. We decided to go our separate ways and follow our dreams, agreeing that if it's meant to be, the Universe will bring us back to each other. Fast forward 2.5 years (June 2018) when we found ourselves in neighboring countries in West Africa (no big deal). We reconnected online & bonded over the unique experiences we were both having and continued talking even after I moved back to the US. A few months later, he came home from Peace Corps almost a year before expected and eventually decided to move to Montana for an AmeriCorps position. I "slyly" convinced him to make a stop in Denver (where I was living) on his road trip up there, and he "casually" agreed. We spent a weekend together and the spark was still there. Maybe this was the Universe bringing back together. After a few big conversations, we decided to take the chance, and we've been together ever since!