Catholic University may have brought us together, but it almost missed its mark entirely! Mike graduated a year before me, and even though our circles ran in the same orbit, we somehow never connected. My group of friends, eventually adopted as the 2020 sweethearts of his fraternity Kappa Sigma, even attended a Superbowl party at his house without us meeting. Can you believe it? After college, I landed in Arlington, VA with our connection point and my brides-man, Rob. Here's where things get interesting. We kept hearing whispers about each other like "You ski? You should have totally joined Mike and the guys on their last trip!" But, the few times we saw each other in passing at parties with mutual friends, things were always too chaotic for us to have our moment. One fateful evening, all of Mike's roommates and college mutual friends (including Rusty, Tyler, Kaelin, and Rob featured in the wedding party) decided to grab pizza on the Clarendon Strip after happy hour. There was a conveniently empty seat right next to Mike and the rest, as they say, is history! Mike officially asked to go steady after a few months of casual dating while in Richmond, VA at the Maymont public gardens. He has always been a romantic!

The past three years have been a whirlwind for us! We started our journey in Arlington, VA, and our connection only grew stronger as I pursued school in Bethesda, MD. When the military assigned me 2 years of "away rotations" for the in-hospital part of my medical training, Mike embraced remote work to become my ultimate travel companion. Together, we've called Washington State, California, Hawaii, Florida, Texas, DC, Virginia, and Maryland "home" – and we have endured separations while I stayed in Naples, Italy and Rhode Island. Through it all, we've learned that home isn't a place, but the love we share. Our next chapter is bitter-sweet, as we will be staying in the DC area for one more year until I am assigned a more permanent location to continue my medical training. We can't wait to see what next steps await us as husband and wife!