It was the very beginning of the pandemic, and while most folks were scrambling to figure out how to bake sourdough or hoard toilet paper like it was gold, Shruti and Peder were on a five-hour Zoom date. Five hours. On Zoom. And it wasn’t some awkward "so, what’s your favorite color?" kind of thing. No, they were diving deep. They talked about the magic of Wisconsin summers, how prairies are a secret kind of beautiful, growing up in Wisconsin with a whole lot of cultural richness, and—get this—how cats don’t have collarbones (still can’t wrap their heads around that one). Oh, and the kicker: Shruti had been to the exact part of the Philippines where Peder’s dad served in the Peace Corps. That had to be fate, right?

From the very start, everything just... clicked. By date two, it was clear they were already in each other's orbit—not just because they liked each other, but because they’d begun to realize life felt a little incomplete without the other in it. Shruti, knee-deep in med school, found herself starting to rethink what "balance" and "joy" really meant, especially with Peder now part of the equation. He not so secretly became the reason she started wanting more from life—more than just the grind of work, more than just checking boxes.

As the relationship deepened, it grew from shared values to those little adventures that felt bigger than the world around them. Summers at Peder’s cabin became this beautiful rhythm—kayaking, swimming, bonfires that never quite died down, and basking in that perfect Midwestern sunshine that’s equal parts rare and magical. They camped and backpacked through the state, relearning how to love Wisconsin together with every hike, every lake, and every quiet moment by the fire.

When they weren’t off adventuring, they were inside, staying up too late trying to cook the most ridiculous meals and discovering new music. They baked cookies until the “just one more” turned into “how did we finish the whole batch?”—but it was never about the food. It was about finding joy in the simplest things, together.

Even as life got busier—Shruti stepping into her fourth year of med school and the looming uncertainty of possibly moving for residency—they never felt like they were making decisions to be apart. Their lives, big and small, just fit. From shared dreams of what the future might look like, to the everyday stuff—like beating each other at board games (let it be known, Shruti wins most of the time, even if Peder swears otherwise)—it all just worked.

Now, with Aloo and Gobi running the show at home and a whole playlist of memories already in the books (and so many more to come), Shruti and Peder’s love is exactly what it’s meant to be: a partnership built on laughter, spontaneity, and finding someone who makes even the strangest, most unpredictable of times feel like home.