In March of 2020, Julia and Sven had been living together for 3 months in a tiny studio apartment just off of RIT's campus in Rochester. Sven had gone home to Massachusetts for spring break and Julia was on her eighth clinical rotation for PA school. While Sven was at home, everything started shutting down and closing, and Julia's clinical rotation was cancelled. The rest of their senior semester switched to online and Sven made the choice to go back home to Massachusetts for the remainder of the year while Julia had to stay back in Rochester while waiting for news about her clinical rotations. For their last meal together before starting their long distance journey, they got Chinese food. One of the fortune cookies read, "home is where your heart is."

Julia and Sven crossed paths for many years before their love story began. They both applied to the same colleges, including Savannah College of Art and Design, Boston University, and Rochester Institute of Technology. Sven was an area office assistant (desk attendant) in the building that Julia was a resident advisor for her first year in residence life. It wasn't until their third year of college that they became close friends and began to get to know each other.