What a big question to answer. What is the story of Claudia and my relationship?

Well, for those of you who don’t know me very well, I tend to ramble. My writing style is unfortunately no different. It has also been a number of years since I have taken a formal literature or writing class, thus you’ll have to forgive my syntax or grammatical errors. With all of that stated up front, in respect to your time, and patience, I will provide a TLDR (too long; didn’t read- for the older generations reading) version of our story below:

Claudia and I met in 2019, on the first day of our vet school orientation. Over several years, many classes, a global pandemic, road trips, and pet ownership, we fell madly in love with one another. So, here we are, closing out chapter one of “our story,” and embarking on one of the greatest adventures life has in store for us. Thanks for reading and being a part of our story. We hope to enjoy your love, support, and (dare I say) admiration as we continue to turn the page to the next chapter.

Alright now that wasn’t so bad was it? Buckle up.

As stated previously, we met at roughly 11:45 AM on August 15th 2019 on a bright and sunny day in Pullman, Washington. I was introduced to Claudia by a friend of hers from undergrad. Now, the details of the day are a bit foggy, but the fluorescent lighting in the room began to glow a bit brighter as she smiled and shook my hand. At that moment, I knew there was something captivating about her, and I had to know more. I am terrible with names, but her name, I made sure to commit to memory immediately.

We spent the next several days at a “summer camp” style orientation. As we endured the agonizing “ice-breaker” sessions, awkward conversations, and strange group activities (I’m being deceitful for effect- I love summer camp activities). I distinctly remember wanting to escape these sessions to talk more with her. Later, we discussed how there was a “camp crush” feeling to that first week. As a strange break from your traditional summer camp normalities, there was a bar a couple blocks from the camp, and of course a bunch of twenty-somethings were going to visit each night. It only feels proper to give some credit to the Kirsches (a family friend of Claudia’s), who were in the area and bought a round of shots for our early friend group to celebrate the beginning of our continued studies. This celebratory drink (and maybe a couple more), seemed to provide just the right amount of confidence to really begin talking to her.

We ended up becoming close fairly quickly. We spent the roughly two hour bus ride back to Pullman, bonding over our college experiences, and oddly enough Twitter (now known as “X”). She had an excellent sense of humor, a great laugh, and oh not to mention she was outstandingly beautiful. Like I said, she was captivating. We spent many of those first weeks becoming even closer, finding excuses to spend time with each other, without making our intentions toward the other very obvious (though let’s face it, they were). Claudia’s “move” was an invitation to the Moscow farmer’s market, which naturally I took up immediately. In all fairness, I had never been to a farmer’s market and at the time it seemed like a pretty boring way to spend a morning. Though, there is still to this day, a continued theme of Claudia showing me parts of the world I had yet to explore, and now we both love a good farmer’s market. To both of our disappointment, there was another female individual from our friend group to break up the possibility of some “happenstance” one-on-one time. Nonetheless, we found this to be a great outing, and to both our contentment, would not be the last.

At long-last, I asked her out to La Casa Lopez, and shortly thereafter we began our formal relationship. Several months later, on Halloween (of all the nights I could choose from…) we exchanged “I love you"s. As confident as I may be perceived, I actually left Claudia a note professing my love, rather than actually telling her in person. As previously stated, she (thankfully) reciprocated before we joined the rest of our friends at the bar.

We had the blessing --and curse -- of dating through vet-school, which led to a lot of shared experiences, but also a lot of studying and classwork. The latter of these, Claudia insisted she could not accomplish with any outside distractions (e.g. me). Once COVID-19 threw a massive wrench in our formal education, we had another strange 'blessing/curse' development in our story. As we moved to remote-lecture based learning our studies could take a backseat to our immediate desires of the moment. We spent a lot of time together. (And yes of course we went back and watched all of the recorded lectures- we are good students). This freedom allowed us to take long road-trips to the west coast, Phoenix, and due to plummeting airfare, a weeklong adventure driving through Costa Rica.

Now if you’re still with me, I’d like to tell you when I KNEW Claudia loved me. Like many others during the pandemic, I developed a huge desire to travel, and what better way to do that than buying a camper for my pickup with money from the federal government (sorry national deficit). It is a “pop-up” camper that provides an upgraded “tent-like” experience with rubberized canvas walls. Naturally, I did a bit of tinkering to allow for basic electricity and some added storage for the journey of a lifetime. My goal was to make it as comfortable as possible for my passenger princess. This was inspired by our first road trip together where we stayed in a tent, and my perception of the experience seemed less than desirable by her standards. Claudia and I decided to take an epic road trip through several national parks, visiting her family for spring break, and back up the west coast. Yes, that is A LOT of driving, but that’s not even the point of the story. I was giddy with excitement to start our maiden voyage in our very own Roamin’ Chariot (the camper). We had aimed for the southern border of Idaho as our first stop. An important detail- remember when I mentioned that the pop-up had a “tent-like” feel to it? If you’re smarter than I was at the time, you may imagine that this material does not insulate well at ~10 degrees Fahrenheit. What I had failed to realize was that driving straight south in mid-March, would not immediately yield warmer weather (I can only imagine the collective facepalm). We spent the first night of that road trip in a Walmart parking lot with no source of heat. I had pulled the Phoenix-raised girl into a less than ideal sleeping arrangement, in below freezing temperatures and she toughed it out, because she knew how excited I was. The next few days went about the same, as a cold front carrying a lot of snow into the national parks we were visiting on the way down. After those couple of nights, she could still look at me with a (possibly strained) sense of adventure, passion, and warmth for me- even if that was about the only “warm” part of the whole situation. Those days taught me that she was tougher than she looked, and would support me in all my hare-brained ideas, with surprisingly minimal trepidation.

In that same year, we were blessed with a litter of kittens fumbling about in her yard on my birthday. We decided to adopt two of them that would later be known as “Chainsaw” and “Pinto Bean.” These curious little cats would become about the strangest, most food motivated, and rambunctious small responsibility we shared together. A whole new side of Claudia’s compassion and sense of responsibility was made evident to me, and I have treasured all of the time spent, and lessons learned from them.

Now, I have painted a fantastical mural of our story thus far. It has not come without challenge. Though, in a relative sense, we have had it pretty easy. We have navigated many disagreements, we have had no shortage of very long conversations, some of them laugh-filled, others tear-filled. It has been mostly sunshine and roses, but there have also been bouts of proverbial rain. I have learned a lot about myself, she has made me a better man, and I’m fairly sure I’ve done the same for her. One of the biggest challenges we overcame was what to do after we graduated. Claudia and I approach most situations with a fair amount of forethought (please ignore my short-sightedness about the weather). We knew that we wanted to stay together, and that if we were to move in together we would get engaged. These ideas, and ultimately -- decisions, were discussed in great detail. We both wanted that outcome. In short, Claudia was concerned about moving to Spokane. It was not exactly her dream place to settle down (sorry to all the Spokanites). I had always planned on buying a veterinary practice in Spokane, leading to us… well “settling down.” We had revisited this conversation many times over, during our fourth year of education. This year was filled with many demanding clinical rotations where communication was not as easy as it had previously been. As Claudia had begun exploring job opportunities outside of Spokane I knew that this was one of those big moments where a compromise was in order. We had decided that we would not buy a veterinary clinic in Spokane, and instead write a future chapter of our story somewhere coastal. But let’s not “read-ahead” to chapter two.

We moved in together (albeit, in sin), which was a surprisingly easy transition. Really, all credit goes to me, since I have wanted to stop being a bachelor and have loved taking care of a home since before “our story” began. We are renting a cozy 1930’s era house, with a beautiful kitchen. Claudia taught me how to decorate. We filled it with plants, and it’s “home” temporarily. We hit the ground running to begin our careers as veterinarians, and haven’t looked back. We love what we do, we are glad we have shared experiences, and maybe just a little healthy competition over who had the coolest case of the day.

We recently adopted a greyhound “Bones,” that has been a recent “step-up” the responsibility ladder from cat ownership. That has been a fun new adventure. Also, it may just barely scratch the surface of a couple of the responsibilities child-rearing has to offer. Look, if you're rolling your eyes at that statement, it’s 2025, just be happy that we are planning on having kids, instead of “fur-babies.”

We have truly enjoyed every step of “our story” thus far. We continue to learn from each other, and foster our shared love of veterinary medicine. Thankfully, when we ask each other “how was work?” we are truly excited about the answer and have the benefit of understanding the other’s experiences almost completely. We find joy in balancing household responsibilities. We overcame the hurdle of not being able to share the kitchen with each other, and have a lot of fun cooking together. We are busy mapping out the next chapter of our life, but make sure to pay attention to the page we are currently writing. I am truly grateful every day for “our story” and what the future has in store for us. We could not have done it without the constant support of our families and friends.

In summary, Claudia has been the greatest blessing in my life. We have had so much fun along the way. She is my best friend, and I can only hope that she will continue to be, for years to come. She has opened up parts of me that I wasn’t sure I possessed: an appreciation for art, a love of plants, an acceptance for the idea that audiobooks are an appropriate way to 'read a book'. She has also deepened my appreciation of the natural world, fueled a love for all things Harry Potter, and ignited my passion for cooking, while significantly heightening my sense of responsibility. Most of all, she has allowed my hopeless romantic dreams to come true.

Thank you for being a part of the ride,

Andrew