A couple weeks into the first semester at Iowa State, Quinn and his friend Jacob were settling into their desks to learn some calculus when Ari sat down. It was the first day that Quinn knew what he was doing in the class, and unable to contain his excitement, he had to share it with the cute girl one seat over. That day turned into many study sessions, Ari keeping tallies on how often Quinn fell asleep in class, and future plans to live down the hall from each other and copy each other's class schedules.

On summer break from college and living four hours apart from each other, we had to get creative for our first date! Ari came up with the idea to meet in Albert Lea, MN and spend a day kayaking and picnicking at the state park. She even volunteered to strap two kayaks to the top of her car for a casual drive down the interstate AND pack the picnic. Shortly after meeting at the lake, Quinn mustered up the courage to ask Ari to be his girlfriend (in French even!). Thankfully she said yes! We spent a long day together and ended up making our respective treks home (way later than originally planned). Our only way of staying awake for the drive was chatting on the phone and continuing our conversations from earlier in the day.