Max and I met in March of 2018 at orientation leader training. We immediately hit it off - I remember the first thing he sent me was a presentation he made about Shrek and a playlist of his favorite indie songs. Once the summer started, we were inseparable. We spent that entire summer on the same floor in East Quad and were constantly hanging out together and with the other OLs (shout out T.C. and Hevhynn <3). We joke that our first date was that summer - we went to a concert at the Pike Room and on the way back we parked on the side of the road to stargaze. This would be the first of many such stargazing stops. We were best friends for a year and a half, including being resident advisors in the same building for a year, and everyone close to me was like... you realize you guys are in love right? And I was like nooooo we're just really good friends guys it's not like that. Then Max went to Harvard for the summer while I stayed in Ann Arbor to work on my thesis, and I realized anytime I talked to anyone I was talking about Max, or thinking about what I was gonna tell Max about whatever I was doing, and was just waiting for him to come back. So I concocted a plan: I didn't drink until my 21st birthday, so I decided that that night I would tell Max about my feelings, and if it went poorly I would blame it on being drunk (genius plan obviously). Max planned a surprise party with my friends (love u Cassidy) and at the end of the night, we went back to his house. I was so nervous and Max kept asking "Are you gonna throw up??" I did not throw up, I did confess my feelings, and the rest is history!

Sydney and I met in March of 2018 at the first training for summer orientation leaders. It wasn’t until that summer that we became friends. We spent much of our time together with other orientation leaders, hanging around East Quad and Ann Arbor. We joke that our first date was this summer when we went to a concert together, though just as friends (yeah right). Later that summer, I got an RA position for the school year and it was in the same building Sydney was slated to be an RA in as well, Mary Markley Hall. That school year we became inseparable. We would constantly spend time together doing homework, playing video games, playing DnD with our friends Juan and Kayla, or just hanging out. Sydney’s room was two floors above mine and we’d constantly text each other to see what the other was up to. We were such good friends and I was completely oblivious to my own feelings about her, let alone any Sydney may have felt for me. I landed a job at Harvard for the following summer and Sydney did a summer research program in Ann Arbor. This was the first time since we met that I was not in the same building - or even city - as Sydney. My summer in Boston was not a good time, and it made me realize there was not a time where I ever wanted Sydney to not be a part of my life. I was in love with her, and had been for quite some time. I returned back to Ann Arbor for our senior year knowing I had feelings for her but too nervous to say anything. I worried telling her would ruin the friendship between us (silly, I know). For Sydney’s 21st birthday in September, her friend Cassidy and I planned a party for her and a bar crawl afterwards. At the end of the night, Sydney asked if she could use the bathroom at my house which was just a couple of blocks away. Once there, I thought she might be sick, but in reality she was working up the courage to tell me she had feelings for me. I was so happy and immediately told her I felt the same. We started dating that night and the rest is history.