“so, how did you meet?”

We often give two versions of the story – a long version and a short version.

The Short Version

We met through a mutual friend that Kevin was visiting in New Orleans.

The Long Version

Our story goes back to 2008, when several people in the story decided to take part in study abroad programs during the spring semester of 2008. Kevin was set to travel to Berlin, Germany, where he would meet a great group of friends that included Nick Peddle and Jenny Afkinich. Jenny happened to be going abroad at the same time as her Wofford roommate, Emily Johnson, who went to the Dominican Republic.

After studying abroad, the Berlin crowd stayed in touch. Nick moved to New Orleans to live with his girlfriend and now wife Suni. Kevin moved back to Berea, and Jenny lived and worked in South Carolina. In October of 2010, Kevin was attending regionals for Ultimate in Minneapolis, and with his spare vacation time, decided to make a trip down the river to New Orleans to visit Nick. It so happened that Jenny was going to visit Emily, who was participating in Teach for America in New Orleans as well. Kevin and Emily met, but nothing really developed.

Flash forward two years to the winter of 2012, when Kevin went down to New Orleans once again to escape the cold of Cleveland in December. This time, they ended up hanging out in the French Quarter and listening to the music of Frenchmen Street.

They stayed in touch via computer and phone during the late winter and into March, and Emily came to visit in March of 2013. After dominating the Hyltons and Thomases at Cranium™, they went to the zoo and sang karaoke. This was enough to convince the two of them to date long-distance for a year.

Emily and Jack the Dog moved up to Cleveland in June of 2013 to make it the real deal, and the rest, as they say, is history.