We met in an engineering club at Purdue, and from the start there was just something there. We kept running into each other everywhere, and Joe was secretly asking mutual friends at every meeting if I was single yet. But the timing was never right. I left for six months in Paris, then suddenly graduation was weeks away. Two years of almost. The week before we walked across that stage we finally stopped waiting, spent every minute together, and that was it. He’s been my first call ever since.

One night at Harry’s Chocolate Shop at Purdue, Joe asked me to dance. It wasn’t even a slow song, it was a random college bar on a regular night, but we just slow danced anyway, completely unbothered by everyone around us. It sounds so simple but that was the moment I knew. He’s the kind of person who makes an ordinary Tuesday night feel like a movie scene.

Honestly? Pay off our student loans and then book the first flight we can. Joe has never been overseas and I think about being the one to hand him his first passport stamp all the time. We’re both so curious about the world and after loving each other from different cities, we just want to go experience it together.