Lukas and I met our freshman year at UF on the crew team. Lukas says we first met one night after the Head of the Hooch (a regatta) in Chattanooga; however, I don't quite remember meeting him that night. The first time I remember meeting Lukas was at Bow Ball (Bow Ball= Crew Winter Formal). After talking that night, we found out we both lived in the same dorm. Between Lukas's 5am practices, my 5:30pm practices, and a full schedule of classes we could barely find time to spend together so we started meeting in the Murphree courtyard late at night, in the early mornings, and in the middle of the day, even if we only had 10 minutes. We wanted to spend every second we could together. Eventually, Lukas asked me to be his girlfriend in the Murphree courtyard (2/26/2017) and we took the crew team by surprise when one of the loudest girls on the women's team and quietest guy on the men's team started dating. I think our relationship was a shock to everyone at first- teammates, friends, family, even ourselves-as we appeared to be so so different from each other on paper. However, we have seen time and time again just how complementary our differences are and have learned that it is these differences that make us so strong. Looking back, I am in awe of who we were and who we've become. I'm so extremely grateful to have gotten to grow with my best friend- through every year of college from date functions and bow balls, to graduation, and now navigating post-college work/grad school life. I don't think either of us expected to meet the person we would marry our freshman year of college, but boy are we so grateful we did.