There’s a running joke about the club Noah and I met each other in. The idea is that every year, at least one couple meets on the trip and ends up falling in love. A few of them have even gotten married. It’s kind of infamous for that. Part of the reason? There are way fewer guys than girls on the trip, so the handful of guys who do go end up getting a lot of attention. And to be fair, anyone willing to sleep under a mosquito net in a cabin with no AC for two weeks to serve others? That's an appealing kind of person.

When I went on the trip, I was definitely not looking for anything romantic. This was my second trip and I was the Vice President of the organization. My best friend was the President, and we had already fought tooth and nail with the university just to get the trip approved—endless paperwork, late nights, red tape. By the time we landed in Peru, I just wanted everything to go smoothly and to make sure every student made it back home safe.

I hadn’t even met Noah before the trip. He missed almost every prep meeting—due to his “intramural soccer team” having games the same time as our meetings. Normally, we don’t even allow freshmen to go on these trips, so going into the trip I already had a pre-conceived notion of the person he was. Plus, within a few days, it felt like every girl on the trip was flirting with him. I was not impressed.

A few days into the trip, we ended up sitting next to each other in a loud Irish pub in Cusco. Sipping espresso martinis, and what I expected to be small talk turned into a deep three-hour conversation about everything—our families, our faith, the kind of physicians we hoped to become. I started to think that maybe there was more to this guy than I thought. Later that night, our friends went to a local salsa bar where an instructor taught all of us how to salsa. Noah and I were partners and from that point on we were always together on the trip.

By the end of the week, we were joking about coming back to Machu Picchu in ten years. It started as a joke—but it felt a little like a promise. At the end of the week, each member on the trip was given a superlative. The one Jenna chose for me was "most likely to rob the cradle." On the very last night of the trip, as we were saying goodbye, Noah turned to me and asked if I’d go on a date with him once we were both back in Tuscaloosa. I said yes, and the rest is history!

It’s been two years now, and every day we learn something new about one another. Our strengths balance each other in ways that make us both better. Noah is calm, patient, and steady. I’m a little more chaotic and complex. But somehow, he quiets the storm in me. He helps me focus and feel grounded, and I can honestly say I accomplish more, and live more fully, with him by my side.

I never expected to meet someone on that trip—especially not the freshman soccer kid who missed all the meetings. But somehow, that one unexpected moment turned into our story.