At the beginning, I suppose. Christie’s first memory of Tim is when she saw him in one of their early shared graphic design classes at the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point. She thought, “Wow, that tall guy with the amazing cheekbones is super cute.” Then it turned out he was an amazing artist too, and the spark of admiration hit.

Tim’s first memory of Christie was similar, but the reverse. Christie presented a computer illustration in class, a realistic drawing of an Egyptian tomb, and Tim thought, “Wow, this girl is good,” and her cuteness was an afterthought.

Throughout our time in college together, we were on a similar track for our education in the fine arts department, so we shared many classes. As we spent more time together working in parallel on our art assignments, skipping class to eke out more work time for projects for that same class, getting up mid-lecture to go catch Pokemon by the library, and drinking way too much coffee, we grew to be very close friends.

Our friendship was the perfect soil upon which we finally found our feelings blossoming into a new type of love. I, Christie, had become interested in dating Tim quite early on in our friendship (which I let him know in no uncertain terms) but the time wasn’t right. So I waited patiently and happily contented myself with what was one of my closest friendships at the time. The summer after we graduated college in 2017, we spent nearly every day together playing board games, walking through the sculpture park in Stevens Point, and watching movies (between Christie’s job at the movie theater, and Tim’s job at Family Video we had access to all the movies).

Eventually, the December after we graduated, we spent an evening at Tim’s apartment watching Saw, a favorite of Tim’s (weirdo) which Christie had never seen before. The moment finally felt right. Christie looked at Tim, plucked up her courage and gently asked, “Could I kiss you?” In the dark living room of Tim’s upstairs apartment with only the ghostly wash of light and the horrifying metallic creaking noises of the Saw DVD loading screen, we kissed. And it was the best first kiss ever.

Since then, our love for each other has done nothing but continue to grow. It feels like the adventures and support and love have been non-stop. We are surrounded by the best people on earth, which really helps too.

For fun photos and a timeline of our love story since then, visit the Photos tab!