Per the standard Minnesota spring, it was a blizzardy day in April 2019, I found myself alone in my dorm room, all my friends were out with their significant others and I was feeling... lonely. With Carrie Underwood's "a fruity little drink because she can't shoot whiskey" lyric fully ingrained in my identity, I take a sip of Proper Twelve whiskey, neat, and scroll through a dating app on my phone. Little did I know, my Single Sophomore Spring was about to be over.

Being the only single person in a friend group full of couples had its challenges, we were always on the hunt for prospects. Too preoccupied with my studies and work, I left the vetting of any potential suitors to my friends. Yeah. My friends made and ran my Tinder account. We would sit around on Saturday nights and laugh at the cheesy pick-up lines college-aged boys thought would work.

However, on the snowy night in my dorm, all alone, I opened the app without my friends, just to see if there was anyone worth talking to. A new message at the top of my inbox read, "What are the odds we'll get a snow day tomorrow?"

We did get a snow day, and this Marcus guy and I ended up texting all day. For several days. He was really nice to talk to and seemed really interested in me. We decided to meet up for a coffee at our campus coffee shop. Even up until the morning of the date I was convinced I'd just back out, too nervous to go on another first date. My friend, Sarah, helped me devise a plan that she would "accidentally" run into us at the coffee shop after an hour and rescue me in case it was going horribly.

Marcus and I talked, he was wearing a baby blue sweater that really made his blue eyes shine. He was quiet, my palms were sweaty. But it was nice, and I liked him, a lot. That hour went by so fast and Sarah was there to whisk me away before I knew it. Later on, I got a text from Marcus along the lines of, "I didn't get to give you a proper goodbye-hug because your friend showed up, I'd love to see you again tonight if possible." Immediate freak out.

Later that night, in my dorm alone doing homework, there was a knock on the door. It was Marcus. He brought me chocolate chip cookies (man knew RIGHT away the way to my heart) and got his goodbye hug. I couldn't stop smiling the rest of the night. The rest as they say, is history.