Kevin and Ariel’s story starts, with an assist from a couple friends, in Fall 2016 when they were both PhD students at Cornell. One of Ariel’s friends, Lory, was dating one of Kevin’s friends, Mardochee, so along with Kevin’s roommate, Hugh, they hatched a plan to set up Kevin and Ariel. The site was the birthday party for another mutual friend, where Lory made sure that Ariel was invited and Hugh made sure that Kevin showed up, saying “Just take the night off and come, it’ll be fun.” After being introduced at the party, Kevin’s first reaction was, “she seems nice, but she’s way out of my league.” They chatted a bit the rest of the evening, but Kevin didn’t think anything was likely to come of it – after all, she probably wasn’t interested and he was barely surviving the pressures of graduate school. But Ariel had other plans – she reached out afterwards and said she had a great time, so Kevin cautiously decided to set up a first date, coffee at Mann Library, realizing that this might be a life changing opportunity.

Once they were “officially” dating, each knew that time was precious – Ariel was planning to do an internship in Minnesota in Summer 2017 and graduate the following year. They each made the most of their time together in Ithaca, spending as much time together as graduate school would allow. On the weekends, Ariel convinced Kevin to take a break from the lab on Friday nights with the nice restaurants in Ithaca and introduced him to Cornell Hockey. She also introduced him to wine tasting throughout the Finger Lakes. During the week, they enjoyed walking around campus, exploring the beautiful gorges and lakes around Ithaca, and meeting up for coffee between the buildings where they worked.

As the snow receded and spring turned to summer, Ariel left for Minneapolis, beginning their first period of long-distance dating. Throughout the summer, they visited each other and Facetimed every day, kicking off 2 years of “K-TV”, where introvert Ariel would update on her day in 10 mins, then slightly less introverted Kevin would entertain her for the next hour. Once Ariel came back to Ithaca, they tried to make the most of time together, doing their favorite activities, while surviving the stress of PhD exams, thesis writing and defenses.

In Summer 2018, Ariel graduated and moved to MN permanently, excited to move on to new work adventures. Although her departure from Ithaca was bittersweet for Kevin as it began two years of long-distance dating. Over the next two years, Ariel and Kevin would Facetime almost every day and visit each other every month – Ariel even visited Ithaca in mid-winter – true commitment indeed! Then the COVID-19 pandemic began, shutting down most of the world, including Cornell’s campus. Rather than ride out the pandemic in a small studio apartment, Kevin fled to MN, providing the first opportunity to live with Ariel. A true trial-by-fire as the world around them shut down. For the next 3 months, Kevin and Ariel would work remotely in her 1-bedroom condo, one at the kitchen table and one in the bedroom. At the time, Ariel was developing Starburst-themed yogurt and the smallest size samples that the plant could ship her were dozen-yogurt cases, so they often had 3-4 cases of Starburst yogurt of varying flavors – she would eat one of each flavor, and then Kevin would polish off the remaining ~40 yogurts in the next couple days, giving him the sugar high to finish writing his thesis from the kitchen table.

As Summer 2020 began, Cornell re-opened and Kevin went back to Ithaca to defend his thesis before coming back to Minnesota permanently. After an 18-hour road trip to Yellowstone, Kevin started his job, giving the pair the chance to live together. As they settled back into a longer-term routine, they’ve tried to balance work with fun activities around the Twin Cities, fun vacations, and visiting family. Some of their favorite trips have been skiing in Utah and Colorado, vacationing in Spain and Italy, and visiting Ariel’s parents for summer lake weekends in Northern Minnesota. As Kevin and Ariel look forward to their wedding, they’re excited to see what adventures and experiences the future has in store!