December 2015. Freshman year, University of San Diego. I had just finished finals and was grabbing lunch with a friend in the SLP before missing my flight home. We stopped to say hi to Abigail, who was seated beside a friend I had never met. Her name was Alexa. She was bubbly, kind, warm, and the kind of person who you knew truly cared about what you had to say. April 2016. I was a month into pledging Beta Theta Pi after being forced to rush by my parents (no joke). Our first social event was coming up, and I had to bring a date. This presented a major dilemma. Between living in an all guys dorm, majoring in computer science, and leaning a bit on the shy side, I knew barely any girls, and the ones I did know had boyfriends. After some pondering, I decided to ask Abigail if I could have Alexa's number to ask her to our 80s Yacht Club dance. Alexa and I had bumped into each other a few more times, and I couldn't help but think this was someone I was destined to be friends with. Alexa said yes, and that weekend we had our first super platonic friend date. We went out to the thrift stores, found the perfect blend of groovy 80s and preppy yacht club attire, danced our hearts out at the event, and had a heck of a time. Such a great time, in fact, that we would meet up for lunch once a week for the rest of the school year, study and do homework together, squad up for parties, befriend each other's friends, and become instant besties. At this point, I was pretty sure we would be in each other's lives forever. Little did I know, that after a few years of adventures, a ballroom dance class, and a weekend in Big Bear later, I'd be head over heels in love with my best friend (sorry Austin), hoping she might feel the same about me <3.