The two of us met in our college days thanks to our shared love of music and service. Though we attended rival schools (Zach at Purdue University, Alex at Indiana University), we were both in our respective school's marching bands, were both sousaphone players, and were both members of our respective school's chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi (KKPsi). KKPsi is an honorary service fraternity dedicated to serving college bands, so naturally its members are among the geekiest of band geeks. We first met at an event that Purdue's chapter was hosting where all the Indiana chapters got together to socialize. This would be the first of several KKPsi events where we would see each other, from day of service projects to district conventions. With each meeting, the two of us became better friends as we got to know each other better. It wasn't until the year after we had graduated college, however, when Zach reached out to Alex asking if she would like to hang out at his apartment in the Chicago suburbs to meet up with a mutual friend, Emily Pawluk. This was a long shot, as we hadn't even talked in over a year, plus Alex was living over four hours away in Bloomington, Indiana. However, Alex was convinced when Zach mentioned he had a corgi named Luma and sent a picture of her. In the month leading up to our meeting up, the two of us talked for hours and hours by text and over the phone. When the weekend came in December of 2020, Alex drove the long road from Bloomington to Rolling Meadows, Illinois. We had such a great time together, we made plans to meet up again the next weekend. Within a month, we had made our relationship official. Within a year, we had gotten an apartment together. And less than two years later, we were engaged and bought a house together!