Connect How did your love story begin?

Jo and I have been together for 12 years, married for 4, but friends for even longer. We met and were friends in high school, always too shy to linger around each other or admit our feelings, but I made him a birthday mix CD for his 18th, hoping that the music would speak for me. Then for my birthday a month later, he wrote me a letter confessing those same feelings that he had had all along. And the rest is history.

What is your favorite memory you've shared as a couple?

We have so many romantic moments together, but there’s one that instantly makes us laugh- We did a study abroad together in France during college and while we were out exploring, we saw a man in a business suit rush out of a McDonald’s and run into someone walking in the opposite direction who happened to be eating an ice cream cone. The cone ended up on the business man's forehead. He angrily wiped it off and stormed away, but it felt like we were the only two people on earth who witnessed it!

What would you do with $20,000?

We would give a good amount back to our favorite charities and local causes, help our families, and realistically… We would use it for a down payment on a home! Neither of our families have the means to help us out, and we would never ask them to. But we know having a forever home is what our cats and future children deserve!