Sam and Sophie first met in August of 2019, on freshman move-in day at RPI. Sam was volunteering to help usher new students into college life by carrying their belongings, and Sophie was one of those new students, arriving with buckets of stuff and a rapidly escalating sense of dread. She still remembers, with perfect clarity, the moment her father informed her that an upperclassman from the men’s lacrosse team was waiting outside for instructions. There was absolutely no universe in which she was prepared to speak to an upperclassman—let alone an athlete—on her very first day of college. It was, to put it mildly, horrifying. Somehow, from this deeply uncomfortable beginning, they began to talk. Then they began to know each other. By October of 2019, they were dating. Since then, they’ve weathered pandemics, cross-country moves, and adopting a new dog, sticking together through it all.