Let’s rewind to 2016, when we *almost* met. Kelsey had the genius idea to watch a presidential debate with her good friend Liam, his girlfriend (now wife, yay love) Mary, and Liam’s cute roommate Cam. Plans fell through...

Plan B? A ski trip, the four of us, in early 2017. Plans were set—until Liam texted to cancel. “Too rainy. No good skiing in Wisconsin.” Is it just that there's no good skiing in Wisconsin, period? Perhaps. Cam claims he was already dressed in full ski gear on the couch, ready to shred. Jury’s still out.

Then came National Marquette Day in Feb 2017—a made-up holiday only Marquette students take seriously. We finally met on a brewery tour at MKE. We hit it off immediately. Cam nervously asked for Kelsey’s number. Later that night at the legendary dive bar Stenny’s, Kelsey’s college roommate, Hannah, started aggressively hyping her up to Cam. Cam looked confused. “You her wing woman or something?” She was. Crushed it.

A week later, Cam asked Kelsey out. She expected dinner, maybe wine. Instead, she arrived at his apartment to find him stress-sweating over a looming homework deadline. For what it's worth: Cam is always stressed. Cam stopped working and offered to go to dinner. Kelsey could see the swirling visions of Heat Transfer & Fluid Dyanmics behind his eyes. Luckily, Kelsey was student teaching at the time, so she was already in “bossy but nurturing” mode. We stayed in so Cam could work on his homework and Kelsey could grade hers.

And that’s exactly what happened—hours of assignments, conversation, and John Mayer in the background. An unconventional first date… but somehow, kind of perfect.

From there, it was movie nights, late-night chats, shared snacks, and still more grading. In April, Kelsey met Cam’s parents in a bar in Milwaukee. By May, Cam was flying to Rochester for Kelsey’s sister’s wedding—where he knew no one. As they got off the plane, Kelsey said, “If I’m with you, I’ll introduce you as my partner. If you’re alone, figure out what you’re calling yourself. Also... this is not a friend kind of event.” Message received.

That night, Cam introduced himself as her boyfriend and proceeded to meet 100+ members of her extended family—and remembered all their names. Cousin Trish, Cousin Joe, the uncle who talks like a sports announcer—he nailed it.

From there, it was off to the races: camping in Banff and Glacier (Cam tempting the bears by inadvertantly sleeping with a Cliff Bar in his pocket), traveling coast to coast to meet each other’s families, and hopping across the globe to Greece, Costa Rica, Rome, London, the North Carolina shore, and countless ski trips and weddings.

In 2018, Kelsey got into grad school in Boston. Cam said, “Let’s do it.” He packed up and moved to Boston....Then she got into UPenn instead (plot twist), and they did long distance—though Cam’s job had him working on UPenn projects, so he was around often enough to soften the blow.

Eventually, we lived together in Boston, adopted the world’s chonkiest cat, survived a global pandemic, and somehow still liked each other. In 2021, Kelsey moved to D.C. Cam moved back west. One more round of long distance—and finally, in 2022, we reunited in D.C.

Since then: we adopted another cat (less chonk, more chaos), bought a home, planned a 150-person family reunion, and won TWO volleyball leagues (retirement is pending). We’ve built a home full of laughter, late-night takeout, and people who feel like family.

Eight years later, we still think our first date was perfect (even if it was just homework + mediocre music). Cam’s no longer stressed about fluid dynamics. Kelsey’s still has ungraded papers in her bag and we can’t wait for whatever’s next—starting with “I do.