It was the last weekend of my senior year at UNH. My long-time friend, Claire Kershko, was visiting from Bates College. We went to a ski team party where Claire introduced me to some of her friends from Bates, including a guy with an unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt and straw hat. I noticed him right away. We talked a bit; I found out he was from Colorado. As the night went on, we all moved downtown to the Knot Pub. I was so happy to meet Sean, but accepted that I wouldn't see him again. We graduated a few days later. Sean moved back to Colorado to live in Boulder, while I started grad school at UNH. A year later, I am with Claire in Boston. We were at dinner with some friends. Someone received a phone call at the table. My heart skipped when I heard it was Seany, calling to see if he could meet up with us that night. He was in town because he accepted a job working at Proctor Academy in Andover, New Hampshire. We all went out to a club that night. We connected on our first year teaching & skiing. Soon after we were dating, and have now been together for seven years!

In the last month of our senior year, most of the Bates ski team visited UNH for an annual pig roast and party their ski team has every May. Claire Kershko, who grew up closely with Nicole and is my friend on the Bates alpine team, introduced Nicole and I was instantly head over heels. I was thrilled because our groups stayed together and Nicole showed us around Durham. Sadly, we eventually had to say goodbye later that night and I honestly didn’t think I would see her again. A year later, I accepted a teaching position at Proctor Academy located in Andover, NH. Before I left CO to move to NH, I had a conference that summer in Boston. A group of Bates friends were visiting/living in Boston at the time and we made last-minute plans to get together. There were tentative plans to get dinner and potentially go out later that night. I had no intention of staying out but that quickly changed when I saw Nicole was there. I was ecstatic! Somehow for me, she also seemed excited and we connected that night! We stayed in touch the rest of the summer as we prepared for our first year of teaching. I had no idea what I was getting myself into going into teaching but luckily, Nicole would commiserate with me. I was grateful and extremely happy we stayed in contact. Once we settled in at our jobs (I still had no idea what I was doing), we started dating early that fall. I quickly fell in love with her and the rest is history!