It was a Bowdoin basketball alumni weekend and the men and women’s basketball alums were out in downtown Portland, Maine. Brandon was in his second year as an assistant coach at Bowdoin and was out with some of the men’s basketball alums, and Leah was back with her former teammates. As fate would have it, both groups ended up at the same bar that Saturday night. Brandon was at the bar chatting and Leah squeezed in to grab a drink [and maybe to strike up a conversation with the handsome new men’s basketball assistant she’d been seeing all night ;-) ]. The connection was almost instant, as we spent the rest of the night talking, laughing, and dancing (yes, Brandon got Leah to dance in public!) After Alumni Weekend unfortunately, distance played its part. Leah was back to Connecticut, working at a her first law firm, and Brandon, still in Maine, working at Bowdoin. We stayed friends for a number of years after that, thanks to the many texts, calls and FaceTimes. If our busy schedules allowed us to be in the same vicinity, it would be routine to meet up for dinners that lasted hours. Once we realized we kept coming back to each other after all of the years that had passed, we acknowledged that there was something great between us, and we decided to give it a real shot. It was the best decision we ever made. After a couple more years of long-distance dating, and having many dates in the most random of places, we finally ended up working in the same state and being able to live together. Since then, we’ve traveled to many amazing places, visited friends all over, spent holidays with each other’s families and have enjoyed many weddings together side by side. We’ve even enjoyed being quarantined with each other over the past year! We have had the time of our lives getting to know and growing in love with one another over the last 7 years. We cannot wait to see what adventures our future holds, but more importantly, the chance to take it all on together.