Guia's Perspective:

We met our freshman year of college at the University of Iowa in 2017. Colin lived right next door and coincidentally became friends with high school friends I was close with. First time we met, I came over to the communal lounge to play some cards. I was being ruthless and loud in my card playing but somehow Colin still wanted to be my friend.

We continued our friendship throughout the next year. We had continuous game nights, card games, Iowa Football and Iowa Basketball to do together. We bonded over our shared love of friendly competition and our unruly behavior cheering on our Hawkeyes.

Sophomore year came around and things started to shift. We started to meet up and study together, we had countless dining hall breakfasts, lunches and dinners, and would find ourselves walking each other to classes. I finally had the nerve to ask a mutual friend to tell Colin that I wanted to be more than friends. I would like to make it extra clear that I made the first move! Colin's response is still one of favorite memories of asking our friend "Are you sure she likes me?" We went on our first date, getting burgers at Shorts. Where Colin proceeds to tell me that he was not looking for anything serious and wanted to just see where it goes. To be fair, I did agree as well. Well, that didn't last long at all.

A couple weeks later, Colin confessed to me that he loved me and that he wanted nothing more than for me to be his girlfriend. March 4, 2017 was officially seared into my heart.

The next few years, we had to do a lot of learning and growing with each other. We always knew that it was worth it. We've lived apart in different continents, struggled through the early years of adulthood, careers, and family.

I've lived my best days with Colin. We've been through now 3 house renovations, where we were only living with 1/2 bath, 1 bedroom and the kitchen for months. The second house, was the renovations at Colin's parents farm up in Cedarburg. The countless painting, the hours hauling broken trees, and furniture building. With our house and our current project, deciding to completely gut a place and start from bare bones.

We have traveled the world and went to some of the most remote locations. We have been through so many states in the US, we have made a tradition to go to Mexico and found our hidden gem in Cozumel, we have found the oldest and newest places in South Korea, and we have made it to my second home in the Philippines. I was able to show Colin the beauty of what the Philippines has to offer, the culture that is so vibrant and friendly and showed him my favorite places in my hometown in Davao.

We have a shared love of friendly competition and the love of the outdoors. We have our scuba certification. The countless hours of Colin explaining the coral, the fish and the wildlife and making sure to tell me all the fun facts. Don't get us started about pickleball. We are two very fierce competitors and two very talented partners. Catch us at your local pickleball courts.

We've grown and we've learned and we've experience all of this life together and I couldn't imagine doing life with anyone else. Colin is making life, oh so fun.

Colin's Perspective:

Rewind to 2015 at U of I (no, the other one – Iowa) in the dorm hallways of Rienow Hall – a classy building from the 80’s with glazed pink walls, drooping, soggy, asbestos laden ceiling

tiles, and flickering fluorescent lights. My randomly selected roommate for Freshman year happened to go to Lyons Township High School, which by happenstance, was just 20 minutes from Fenwick High School where I had previously been for the last 4 years. Although more than 50% of the students who go to Iowa claim they’re from ‘Chicago’ (guilty), most of them are really just suburbanites like Guia and I. It was through this ecosystem of back and forth Chicago banter that we all came to exchange friend groups of Fenwick and LTHS, and I met Guia as the girl who would always bring cards to play Euchre before going to the bars, and always came prepared with pregame snacks.

Fast forward a semester, and we’d become quick friends – going out on the weekends with each other and our new friend groups, studying in the halls of the different campus buildings, and tailgating down Melrose next to Kinnick Stadium. Everything just worked – I’m sure you all know me as quiet, collected, and certainly introverted, with Guia being the opposite – bubbly, energetic, loud and outgoing. You can likely guess what happened next; I obviously asked Guia out. That said, I’d be remiss if I didn’t caveat that Guia made the first ‘move’ by telling a mutual friend that she liked me and then I asked her out as soon as I knew. Either way, the rest is history, soon to be 8 years as of March 2025.

College was full of ups and downs, to be expected with any new relationship. Since graduation, we have really grown relationship - we’ve been blessed and privileged to have travelled all over the world: Mexico, Canada, South Korea, various islands in the Philippines, and numerous states here in the US. Exploring around and learning from other cultures (especially embracing Filipino culture) has been really important for Guia and I - these travels, combined with the trials and tribulations of normal life - COVID, living apart, recently buying our first house to renovate, etc. are just a few examples of adversity that helped us grow together.

We’re both extremely competitive, and that pops up in our relationship in so many more ways than just pickleball - we’ve challenged ourselves to being landlords just recently, as if

demolishing and building our new home wasn’t enough. Although I still don’t eat Balut (look it up if you don’t know), Guia won’t eat cucumbers and basically refuses to be in the car whenever I’m towing something behind us. I say this with the perspective that we have such minor problems compared to most, we’ve been very fortunate in our lives and that’s all thanks to our parents, as well as every one of you reading this. We appreciate you being in our lives, supporting us, and look forward to sharing our celebration with you!