We met through a mutual friend who Therese knew through high school and Zach knew through college at a 2019 Halloween get-together. Zach and a couple of friends drove down from St. John's University to Therese's rinky-dink apartment in Prospect Park dressed in their October 31st best. Zach was lectured on not "trying anything" with Therese and her roommate, so naturally Zach didn't speak to them the whole night! Dressed as Jesus, Zach spent the night "blessing" strangers on the Metro Green Line and orating from a Bible. Dressed as Aang from Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender, Therese spent the night incorporating air-bending techniques into dances at The Gay 90's. After a huge year of growth for both of us, in November of 2020, we rekindled the flame through a robust Tinder conversation, pun intended. This led to a first date in downtown St. Paul, sneaking into the closed penthouse bar of The Intercontinental Hotel where Zach took pictures and videos of Therese for an independent study project. After getting to know each other for a few hours, Zach popped open the hatch that led to the building's rooftop. Therese commented that this felt like a Nancy Drew computer game, and we watched the first snowfall of the season together over the St. Paul skyline.

Therese's cat, Peachy convinced Zach that maybe he actually didn't dislike cats, leading to the adoption of our sweet little angel Pico in winter 2021. Pico convinced the rest of Zach's family that they also loved cats, and 4 cats later, they're obsessed. Yes, this is important to our story. We spent 2021 and the first half of 2022 finishing college an hour apart, though it was rare that we'd go more than a few days without Zach giving up and swinging down to the cities for a night or two. We graduated college and were invited to move in with Zach's parents for a year or so to save money for a house. Therese started working in children's mental healthcare, and Zach started working taking pictures for insurance companies. After one year, multiple job changes, and 6 rejected house offers. We bought our home in the Longfellow community of Minneapolis in May 2023. Throughout our relationship, travel has been a fun way for us to get out of the frigid winters and treat some Seasonal Affective Disorder. We planned our first trip on a whim a month after we started dating in 2021. We drove down to New Mexico with stops in Nebraska and Colorado. We got back and shocked our parents by not being sick of each other. That summer, we took another road trip to The Badlands and Glacier National Park. In December of 2021, we flew to New Orleans to visit Therese's best friend/cousin, Clare, and celebrate our anniversary. We returned to Colorado in 2022 to see if we wanted to live there and decided that we preferred Minnesota! On our most recent trip, we intended to propose to each other (yes both of us). In April of 2023, we decided to take an Amtrak to New Orleans together. Unfortunately, 12 hours before the train was set to leave, Therese got a horrific ear infection and a perforated eardrum. After a tearful ER visit and a Percoset, we made it to Union Depot on time to take the 30-hour train trip. With temporary hearing loss and engagement rings in our pockets, we made the most of our time in New Orleans with a good blend of touristy and niche stops. Zach had called dibs on proposing first, so he collaborated with Clare to find a spot to propose to Therese in City Park. Under the Spanish moss and old oak trees, he knelt down and asked Therese to marry him. He has no memory of this event. The next day, Therese asked him to marry her in the New Orleans Botanical Gardens, fulfilling a silly promise to her younger self that she too would propose because...feminism?

Therese recently started graduate school at The University of Minnesota in Integrated Behavioral Health and someday hopes to be a therapist. Together we plan to continue to make our house a home with an obscene number of DIY house projects, get married because it's fun to have a party about being in love, and grow our family a bit bigger. We want to continue to be annoyingly active community members and explore our artistic sides together through painting, photography, music, and new mediums. We'd like to grow our plant collection and co-opt the old people lifestyle, complete with crossword puzzles, gardening, and soup-cooking till we become old ourselves :)