Just over 10 years ago, on the day Garrett and Lydia moved onto Ball State’s campus, their parents — Bryan, Julee, Kirk, and Nanci — gathered to reminisce of their own time in Muncie (three of whom lived in that very same residence hall, DeHority, 25 years before).

As their parents shared laughs and memories of times gone by, Lydia and Garrett shared their first moment together. But that was about it — just a moment. For the next four years, the two would mostly know of each other only in passing.

By the fall of 2020, something special brought them back together. Not fate, but something even more powerful; they both needed to find a job.

In the hallways and makeshift classrooms of Muncie’s Maring-Hunt Library, Lydia and Garrett worked together in an after-school program for at-risk and in-need elementary students.

Through the incredible stress of the job — and the mounting pressure of a raging pandemic — Garrett and Lydia found in one another a friend. A friend to listen to, to communicate with, to laugh with.

In that classroom, the two had many deep conversations, ranging from their favorite musical instruments to why the world was the way it was.

By the time the school year came to a close and the job was over, Lydia and Garrett were determined to continue their friendship, neither of them knowing in any way how far it would take them. From moments at the Muncie batting cages to beers at the Fickle Peach, the two of them found a growing and genuine connection — one neither wanted to give up.

It’s been more than four years since, and that time has marked three different cities, three apartments, a shy, personable, and very lovable cat, the stresses of careers, the loss of family members, and the addition of entirely new ones.

Through it all, they’ve found each other. And in the end, that’s what they were looking for.

To honor their time and those that came before, Lydia and Garrett have chosen to come back to the place it started — the City of Love, Muncie, Indiana. They hope that you’ll find what you’re looking for there, too.