Allison Graul and Adam Samuel

I had to move all the way to Florida, just to fall in love with a guy from Philly. Just two days after high school graduation and on my 18th birthday, I was off to UCF as an out-of-state student from Philly for the Summer B program. I didn’t know a single person at UCF or even Orlando in general, and I was pretty excited about that. But you don’t really realize just how intimidating independence in a new city is until you are in a quiet dorm officially on your own. Before school started, I joined the Class of 2018 Facebook page and was added to a group chat with a few other kids from the Philly area. So on a whim, I messaged the one guy who was also enrolled in the Summer B program to see if he wanted to meet up. And sure enough, with his Phillies T-shirt and UCF baseball hat he met me in the Neptune courtyard and I finally found my sense of home. On June 21, 2014 — my birthday and the first day of college over 1,000 miles from home — I met the love of my life, who is conveniently from just 20 miles away from my home in Philly! A friendship blossomed, and he was automatically my go-to friend. We spent the whole summer as friends and then in the beginning of fall semester he made his move and asked me if I wanted to “go steady.” In the five and a half years we’ve been together we’ve shared so many amazing memories — the majority of which took place during our time at UCF. We spent every single game cheering in the student section cheering for our Knights (from 0-12 to 12-0), literal all nighters in All Knight Study, mindless conversations in the bungalow (what we call the raised grass area on Memory Mall with the palm trees), classy nights dressing up for a Greek life formal, and lazy nights watching movies in bed. Senior year was particularly special because we got to witness an epic Knights football season going undefeated and winning the Peach Bowl, and then got to watch the Philadelphia Eagles win the Super Bowl and celebrate with their victory parade in Disney. #GKCO #FlyEaglesFly Looking back, because I met him on day one, there’s not a single college memory that Adam wasn’t a part of. We found ourselves and became who we are today because of our time in Orlando. After we graduated, we stayed in Orlando for about of year until I got a job opportunity in — guess where — Philadelphia. Our love story has come full circle and we are now back living together in the city where we both grew up. It’s been such a journey and I am thankful every day that I took that leap of faith to go out of state at UCF without knowing a single person because it lead me to exactly who I needed to meet: a boy from Philly.