We were in the same vet school class. We knew of each other, but the first time we ever talked to each other was one morning [when] I was running through the student lounge and I saw someone from far away. I didn’t have my glasses on so I didn’t realize it was [Phil] until I was nearly passed him. He looked like he had wanted to say, “hello,” and I felt like I snubbed him. I felt awkward about the interaction and on my way back through, I stopped and apologized to him and said, “If you see me and I don’t have my glasses on, then I probably cannot see you until I’m much closer,” and he was like “SAME.” He had been doing the exact same thing and also felt bad because he had wanted to say hello but hadn’t realized it was me until I was basically past him. So we bonded over our far-sighted-ness and our awkwardness.

I don’t know that it was an exact moment for either of us when we realized we wanted to spend forever together. But from the moment we met we just started including each other in everything we did. We integrated each other into our friend groups and spent all our free time together. It just slowly became apparent to each of us (according to Phil he came to the conclusion before me haha) that there was just no way we would ever want to be with anyone else.