Harrison and Kateryna's story starts in a friend’s dorm room late on a Friday night in the spring of 2019, where they sat knee-to-knee on the floor until the early hours of the morning sharing their life stories. Harrison took his shot and asked for Kateryna's number. The rest of the semester was spent texting, taking long walks on SLU's campus between study sessions, and deep talks late into the night.

At the end of this semester, Kateryna was headed home to California for the summer and was off to Madrid, Spain for study abroad. She was very unsure what the next seven months were going to look like and was conflicted about her growing affection for Harrison. Harrison was confident though: he wanted to be with Kateryna, and he told her just that. He planned to wait for her, if that was what she wanted, until she returned to St. Louis the following January. They parted ways at the end of the semester — reluctantly only friends —and sad that they had seven months until they would see each other again.

Only about two weeks into summer, they decided to give long distance a chance as their feelings for one another only grew with time. The summer flew by with Skype calls and shared photos of their separate summer activities. Then, Kateryna was off to Spain. They continued to grow closer even though they were a world apart, and they only grew to love each other more.

They had a beautiful reunion in January of 2020 and embarked on the transition out of a long distance relationship. They spent two months falling deeper in love, going on adventures, and mostly keeping up with school. They parted ways at spring break excited to come back to warmer weather and do all the outdoor activities they missed during the long St. Louis winter, but school got canceled due to COVID-19. Kateryna had to move out of her dorm and go back to California, and Harrison moved most of his apartment back to Wisconsin. Once again, they were stuck across the country from one another without any choice in the matter.

After the hardest month of their relationship thus far, they both made the brave choice to move back to St. Louis for the summer for Kateryna to pursue a job at St. Louis Children's Hospital in the middle of a global pandemic. That summer, although the hardest for them both, grew their relationship into a beautiful partnership that has lasted since.

They have stood together at three graduations now. They have embarked on the first few years post-college. They have cheered for each other on their first days of their adult jobs. They are now opening a new chapter of their story that they know will be full of love and devotion. Harrison and Kateryna are so excited for this part of their journey and to see what else is in store for them.

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