Stephen and I are often asked the age-old question, "How did you two meet?" Usually, I just tell people we met through mutual friends, as this is generally true. But, to me, this story is so much more special than that.

Stephen's answer might be different, but the first time I remember meeting Stephen was on Sant Jordi's day in 2023. In Barcelona, Sant Jordi's is the day of Books and Roses. On this day, women are given roses, and men are given books. The official slogan is, "A rose for love, and a book forever." Maybe not a fair trade, but I do love flowers! Stephen and a close mutual friend of ours, Franco, decided to give out roses to their female friends for the holiday. My roommates and I were targeted as recipients. Stephen gave me one of his roses, and I reciprocated with one of my most worn-down, Amazon-purchased, pre-used copies of Eugene Onegin. Not a best-selling novel for sure, but it sparked a conversation between us about our love for Russian literature.

Nothing really came of this encounter until much later, when Stephen moved down to Salt Lake from Logan and started hanging out more with all of our mutual friends. Over the summer, I enjoyed playing soccer with a group of church friends and invited Stephen to join (I had a crush on Stephen and knew he loved soccer). From there, the rest is history. We started dating and made things official in December 2023.

While the journey of finding each other was hard, I'm so grateful we finally have and will spend the rest of our lives together.

The flower from Sant Jordi's day has long since wilted and become compost, and Stephen still hasn't read the book I gave him, but I still feel like our first meeting was special. If anything will be forever from that day, it will be us.

Love,

Kelsey Rose Cheney