It was the Fall of 2017. Charlottesville, VA. Two young twenty-somethings walked onto campus at the University of Virginia ready for an adventure. Ben and Lindsay each decided to pursue a global masters degree straight out of undergrad with the hopes of traveling the world and continuing their education. They ended up finding each other.

The fall flew by, spent making lifelong friends from across the globe, Ben and Lindsay secretly eyeing each other from afar but not getting too close. After a short winter break, Lindsay traveling to Thailand for the new year and Ben traveling to Budapest and Prague, they met back up in Guangzhou, China. This is where the spark really ignited.

Guangzhou Party Pier is exactly what it sounds like. A floating dance party made up of clubs, restaurants, and everything in between. It’s late at night, soon to be early in the morning, and Lindsay stands scanning the dance floor through the sea of expats and college kids for that cutie from Massachusetts, fueled by a little liquid courage to make her move. They make eye contact, she moves in, and only 6 short (Lindsay edit: LONG) years later, they would be engaged.

Over the next 6 months, Ben and Lindsay fell in love. On Valentine’s Day they had their first official date, attending a Guangzhou F.C. soccer game before venturing off to find a small craft brewery for a taste of home, the first of endless brewery trips for the two. They made playlists for each other to listen to while they toured around China and Europe together, seemingly testing each other to make sure their tastes aligned.

Soon they were in Barcelona finishing up school, but only just beginning the rest of their lives together. After many days of Americanos in the morning, patatas bravas in the afternoon, and Estrella Damms in the evening, they graduated. Serendipitously, Ben had already accepted a job in Atlanta before starting the Masters program, and so he followed Lindsay to her home city. As was joked about before Ben set off to college in North Carolina, and only delayed by an extra year of graduate school, he had gone south (and all the way around the world), met the love of his life and never returned.