It all began in the fall of 2015, when Sara first noticed John walking by and immediately turned to her friend Casey to ask, “Who is that?” Casey replied, “Oh, I think that’s John Griffin.” Sara made note of it — but didn’t act on it right away.
A few months later, John sent Sara a message on Twitter, asking for her number. From there, they started texting and Snapchatting, slowly getting to know each other. Eventually, in June of 2016, they decided to hang out one-on-one for the first time. On that very first night, Sara told John she wasn’t looking for anything serious — she had plans to head off to the University of New Hampshire in the fall and was just looking to keep things casual. John laughed, and they kept spending time together anyway.

As the summer went on, something unexpected happened: they started falling for each other. Sara remembers telling Casey, “This wasn’t the plan,” but her heart had other ideas. They began having conversations about what to do, knowing a long-distance relationship wouldn’t be easy. Still, they both felt something special and decided to take a chance on each other.

On August 10, 2016 — just two weeks before Sara left for college — they officially became a couple.

Over the next four years, they made long distance work with visits during the semester and time together on school breaks. It wasn’t always easy, but it was always worth it. And now, nearly a decade later, they’re so excited to start the next chapter — together, for good.