It all began in January 2018 when I made the decision to study abroad in London. Despite living just two minutes away from each other on Notre Dame's campus, Brendan and I didn't actually meet until we found ourselves in London. The first time we met was in the lobby of our flat as we both headed to play co-rec basketball. During the first couple months abroad, Brendan and I kept bumping into each other. Whether it was during field trips, in our British government class, at social events, or weekly basketball, our paths seemed to cross constantly. With each interaction, I got to know Brendan more and quickly realized how much I enjoyed his company– not to mention finding him really cute! What started as a friendship quickly turned into a big crush. Of course, I spilled all the details to my sisters, mom, and friends. They all encouraged me to go for it and even suggested that I ask him out (thanks to my sister, Victoria, for her bold advice).

Before I could gather the courage, Brendan beat me to it. During our spring break trip to Italy in early March, Brendan expressed his feelings for me. The very next day, we went on our first date in the Amalfi Coast. We continued hanging out once back in London – either exploring the city together or watching “The Bachelorette" (which Brendan kindly agreed to watch). On March 23rd, Brendan asked me to be his girlfriend, and the rest is history.

It was the start of my 2nd semester Sophomore year at Notre Dame. I was in a quad with my roommates, in the midst of a very important argument with one explaining that no, they did not in fact finish a whole fifth by themselves the night before. At some point another one got bored of the topic and mentioned they were applying to the London study abroad program and asked if anyone else was going to - and me half-paying attention said sure. Turns out, that decision was pretty important.

Fast forward to next year and I’m in London with a full slate of classes, travel and extracurriculars. It’s a bit hazy when I first met Isabella, but I think it was either in one of the classes we shared or in the weekly basketball gym time they had set up. In the first month there we kept running into each other whether it be in class, on ND-organized trips, or weekend group outings including to her favorite bar, Ballie Ballerson (only kidding, Thirsty Bear was probably her #1). I had definitely started to feel something was there when about a month into the program she sent me a text of consolation - the Knicks best player had just torn his ACL. I acknowledge to most people this wouldn’t mean much, but to a sports junkie like myself this was a sign I had to at least try to ask her out. It took a couple weeks for me to gather the courage to say something, but we ended up going on our first date while traveling in Italy and made things official shortly after.