I thought we were just studying--maybe I was a little naive.

In July 2021, we started our Masters of Prosthetics and Orthotics degree at Northwestern University, which began with online sessions. Ross and I became friends and often studied via FaceTime; he saw the real me (I can only imagine I was quite a mess) in those hours of studying and much to my surprise, he liked what he saw--I just didn't know it at the time.

Fast forward, and we're in the best city, Chicago. Ross and I were "somehow" placed in the same group within our class, meaning we would be spending a lot of time together over the next year. Our studying continued, and we even branched out to hanging out outside of class.

First Stop: aliveOne

After a pregame at Ross's apartment, we headed down to aliveOne and danced for hours and ended the night at The Wiener's Circle, where luckily, I was able to go unseen replacing mustard for ketchup on my Chicago dog. After this night Ross had invited me to, I finally felt like I had a home in Chicago, and I'm told this is where others could see me starting to fall for Ross.

Next Stop: The Piano Room

One day shortly after that night, Ross asked if he could stop by my apartment common room while I was studying to practice a song he was learning on the piano and give me a little gift. This man showed up with A JAR OF CHILI and asked me out on a date. While the chili was wonderful, a couple days later I rejected the idea of a date.

Best Stop: 5K & Parson’s

I rallied a few classmates to run a 5K with me, and no surprise, Ross was on board. I realized during this run, Ross is an amazing athlete. . . but, he stayed by my struggling side the entire run, and I was hooked. We celebrated our efforts with some drinks, and I went out with some friends later that night, only to end up sending Ross a string of texts later that night. When he woke up that next morning, scared he'd missed his chance, he grabbed coffee then grabbed me and took me to Parson's for brunch. We hung out the rest of that day and we've been hanging out ever since.