Alex and Kitty’s meeting was something straight from a RomCom!

 

Kitty only applied to two schools, UC Davis and Kansas State. Originally Kitty was all set to go to UC Davis in California. She had a roommate, had sent in a check, and was mostly packed. Kansas State called and offered her a scholarship, a job, a spot in the honors college, a spot in the leadership program, and a chance to try out for the riding team. When UC Davis couldn’t offer anything, she started packing for the purple town.

 

Alex thought about applying for Purdue, but ended up not applying. How strange would it be if he ended up in Indiana and they passed in airplanes as Kitty flew to California! Alex’s best friend, Jon Stacks, ever the impish friend, told Alex’s dad, Bill, about Alex getting accepted to the honors college and that he was able to sign up for a retreat the weekend before school started to meet other honors students. Bill convinced Alex to sign up, and mischievous Stacks let him go all by himself, laughing all the way thinking Alex was in for a boring and slightly awkward weekend of team building exercises. Which, in a way, he was, but he was also in for the best surprise of his life!

 

The day of the retreat, Kitty started to back out. She was reconsidering moving halfway across the country to go to school where she had no friends or family. She told her parents she was just going to stay in the dorms and Skype her friends back home, but they convinced her to go to the retreat to meet new friends. Alex had already been at K-State for a week, learning how to work in the dining center, and because he is so friendly and lovable, had already made plenty of friends, some of whom were going to the retreat as well.

 

Kitty made friends with a girl and carpooled to the Rock Creek Park, and Alex rode with one of his new friends. When they arrived it was organized chaos as all of the students milled about, trying to find beds in the large cabin and meet new people. They were sat down to listen to the instructor explain the activities for the day. Kitty, it is important to note, has several health problems, all of which were not controlled when she left for college. Consequently, she looked much paler than usual (and she is pretty pale!) and was fairly self conscious about how she looked. She felt like everyone could tell that she was sick. So when a boy kept staring at her from across the room, she pointed it out to her friend and they agreed he was being weird and they would avoid him. Alex insists he wasn’t staring (he was).

 

As luck would have it, they ended up seated across from each other at lunch, and despite Kitty’s first impression, Alex immediately won her over with his goofy, effortless charm and similar nerdiness. Alex, struck by cupid’s arrow (or perhaps just excited to be talking to girls after going to an all-boys high school), wanted to hold Kitty’s hand. But how to do it without being weird? There was no escape from that, so he took hold of Chris (his friend, and now groomsman), and Kitty’s hand and decided to “skip like in the Wizard of Oz”. Kitty saw right through this plot, but played along, loving how fun and silly Alex was.

 

Next disaster struck! Or it almost struck. Kitty is the queen of all things klutzy. She can trip over air, and can’t keep a phone alive without an Otterbox. The group was moving to a lower area in the park, and there were steps leading down, filled in with gravel. They were walking down two by two and Kitty slipped! Poised to take down about twenty of her classmates, Kitty was panicking as she careened to the ground. But wait! An arm around her waist caught her seconds before she would have hit the dirt and taken everyone down with her! Alex caught her, pulled her back up, and in a suave move, said “I’m going to keep my arm here just in case.” and held her close the rest of the way down the stairs.

 

The rest of the day, they were always on each others teams, getting closer and realizing that they were having a really good time together. Kitty’s fears about school melted away. That night, Alex folded an origami lily flower and put it behind her ear. Stargazer lilies are Kitty’s favorite flower, and while he had no way to know that, it was clearly a sign of things to come. He also juggled for her and a group of others, and how could she possible resist that?

 

As the day was winding to a close, several people went outside to watch the Perseid meteor shower. Kitty had never seen a shooting star before, so she took her blanket and they found a picnic table to sit on a little bit away from everyone else. As she was looking at the sky, she said “This is so beautiful!”, and Alex, a true romantic, turned to her and said, “Not as beautiful as you.” Then he kissed her under the lights of a thousand shooting stars.

 

Kitty was swept away, but remembering horror stories of her friends in college going on dates with guys who really were already seeing someone else, she paused and asked, “Do you have a girlfriend?”. Alex laughed and said, “No, why?”. So Kitty took the opportunity and replied, “Ok, now we are dating.”

 

And they have been together ever since.