During our masters program, at the height of COVID, we were paired up for a research capstone project. Juan wasnt able to come to the US for the first semester but came in person for the second.

After that semester ended, we played online chess through the summer while Juan was back in Colombia. We connected a lot during those months and learned more about each other. Juan won the most chess games during the summer, and the prize was a first date.

We started dating in September 2021, and Evelyn got a job in NYC while Juan was finishing his degree in Ithaca, so we were long-distance for a little.

In January 2022, Juan moved to Albany while Evelyn stayed in NYC, so for over eight months, we took the train back and forth on the weekends until, one day, we decided to live together.

In August 2022, we moved to our first apartment in Brooklyn. While we lived there, we made new amazing friends and explored one of our favorite cities in the world. We also explored new places and traveled to Colombia, California, Barcelona, London, Brussels, and Paris. In the spring of 2023, Juan said he would propose within a year.

From then on, whenever Juan would say something sweet, Evelyn would ask, Are you asking?. His answer was always not yet.

At Christmas, surrounded by family and in the city where we met and started our relationship, we went out to the backyard, and Juan asked. There were a lot of tears.

After two years of dating, we expanded our family and went to the local Ithaca SPCA to adopt an all-black kitten named Tes (short for Sin Dientes).