Ashley Mendoza ’21 and Alan McGonigle ’18

Alan and I met during our freshman orientation, Summer 2017. We knew of each other and had talked a little in the Class of ‘21 group chat but had no intentions of anything else. At the end of orientation weekend, I was walking out and walked right by Alan (pure coincidence). I decided to say hi, hoping to make a new friend. We ended up exchanging social media accounts and that started our friendship. After talking, we realized we lived right across from each other in different buildings in the Hercules community. I also didn’t have a mini fridge yet, so I had nowhere to store my food, but he kindly offered to store it in his. I didn’t expect to stay friends, but we kept talking and hanging out every day just because of my food situation and we hit it off! I didn’t realize I liked him until one day during a night out, we went for a walk around the Academic Village when he finally asked to kiss me, and I said yes. We graduated in 2021 and have been together for almost seven years now. Thanks UCF!!!