DeKALB - It was a warm summer day when Brandon Giesey texted Sam Malone to see if he could get a friend a job at the Northern Star, following the closure of his home-base, the NTC. What came out of that text, neither predicted.

Sam's intention was 1,000% to exploit Brandon's talent in video production to help the Star move into the digital age. After Brandon cancelled their first meeting due to a 'cold' (yeah right), the two rescheduled for a meeting that took place inside the podcast room at the Star. Inside that room we finished each other's sentences and shared wildly ambitious ideas of what we could accomplish together.

A friendship quickly grew out of our time together at the Star, and even though it depends on who you ask about who had feelings first, there's no hiding behind the fact that Sam was the one to break the ice. Without a subtle bone in my body, all I could think to say was "I think I'm in love with you." Brandon replied, "what?"

We've talked about it a lot - all the things that had to happen to lead us to each other. There's some good and some bad, but in the end we're here, with each other and our pup, and there's no place we would rather be. And even though journalism didn't give either of us a career, it did give us each other, and that's pretty cool.