I remember being nervous about living in a coed dorm my first year of college, but I knew Smith Hall was where freshman are outgoing and make friends. Taking note of who was in my hall the first few days, I had known of Malcolm when we went to our 'SU Serve' freshman community service day. My initial thought of him was that he looked like the stereotypical jock cool guy who thought he was "the man." We ended up being on the same trip to Ashburn's Animal Farms. When we got there, they listed off all the jobs to be done. I slowly raised my hand for painting fences and out of the corner of my eye, saw Malcolm's hand immediately shoot up too. Throughout the day, I felt him staring at me. It was one of those stares that was blatantly obvious and when I looked at him to see, we made eye contact and it took a second or two for him to realize I caught him. At this point I was super nervous- flattered and thought he was cute but didn't know if I had to be cautious with this one.

Sure enough, Malcolm thereafter came over to my room often, guilting me into giving him our snacks, but then stayed much longer. The more he came around, the more I got used to him being there for me and sharing our daily experiences and stories. Even though I would put my retainers in for bed to get him to leave my room, he didn't really get the hint and I often had to awkwardly kick him out for real. But persistence was key and we started becoming “an item” as my mom would say.

As my soccer formal came around the first week of December, I will never forget when I asked him to come with me. He didn't know what I was going to say and buried his face in a pillow as if he was embarrassed and thought I was ending things. He shot up with relief when he heard the actual words that came out of my mouth and little did we know that formal was the start of a now 9+ year relationship. We really grew up together through our college years, envisioning our lives with each other from a young age (which made waiting 9 years a little easier- always knew he was in it for the long haul) and I cannot wait to build the rest of our lives together, making those visions a reality with my best friend.

Let me set the scene.. mud, cows, llamas, brown paint, new shoes and unpreparedness. As most love stories begin, ours started at a small non-profit animal farm in Snyder County, Pennsylvania. Exactly where every college freshman expects to find their future wife.

In the days following move in, everybody went through an event called “SU Serve” where us freshman would spend the day helping a local business for several hours. I wish this was as noble as it sounds, but to tell you the truth I was a bit upset when I found out my group was going to be building and painting fences at a local farm. I believe it was as I squished through the mud in my brand new Nike shoes that I first saw Bianca. She likes to say I was “staring” at her the entire time which I tend to deny but what I will admit is that I strategically switched to painter rather than a builder since that was the group she was in. Short term, that decision meant I now ruined my new shoes and my new sweatpants (really was not prepared) but long term it turned out pretty great.

As the semester started, I would try to find any excuse to spend more and more time with her. Living in the same hall, I would pop into her room multiple times a day to ask for random appliances, eat her snacks or just sit and talk with her for a bit. I even made up some reason on why I had to come back to school early during fall break. The real reason was I knew she’d be there for soccer and would have no choice but to hang out with me. As I got to know her more, two things became really clear: the first is how incredibly easy to talk to she was and how natural it felt to be around her. The second is that when she would put her retainer in and climb into bed, it was time for me to leave.

As the fall sports season ended and winter break rolled around, Bianca told me she needed to ask me something. I remember being terrified having no idea what was coming. To my surprise, she asked if I wanted to be her date to her soccer formal. I believe my reply was something like “oh that’s it? Of course I’ll go”. This turned out to be the best decision of my life because as we took pictures in the hallway (see photos section), I asked her to be my girlfriend (this was the second time) and as they say.. “The rest is history”