nce upon a time, in a military medical school in Bethesda, Maryland, there was a small graduate program. So small, many of its own medical students didn't even know it existed.  In August of 1998, the grad school admitted eight new grad students into its program.  The grad students came from all over the country: Indiana, Pennsylvania, California, New Hampshire, Kansas, and Michigan.  There were two students from Michigan, actually.  And there were a few students who had taken a break between college and grad school, but most had come straight from undergrad.  In a strange twist of fate, the two students from Michigan both happened to have taken some years off in between undergrad and grad school, and both happened to arrive at the graduate school at the same time.  One was a boy, and one was a girl.

The girl was just getting out of a very bad relationship and vowed that she would not date and would concentrate on her studies.  The boy was a study-a-holic and never let girls get in the way of his studies anyway.

That first day of orientation, the girl noticed a very cute boy among her fellows students but sternly told herself not to pay attention.  And yet, she kept looking at him anyway.  Then, late in the morning, the "library guy" came in to talk to the students, and he had handouts printed with their names in his hands.  Half of the packet flopped over in his hands so that one student's name was very visible.  The girl looked at this name and it intrigued her.  It was a beautiful name.  She liked it a lot.  And her gut told her that it belonged to this boy.  And it did.  And she was not surprised that she somehow knew this was his name.  And this knowledge intrigued her all the more.  She had to talk to him despite her "study only!" intentions.  But how?

Then, during a break, she noticed he was wearing a Red Wings golf shirt.  And she had her opening!  She loved the Wings!!! She had just cheered them on during two back-to-back Stanley Cup wins!  So she approached him...

And somehow during this first conversation, it also came out that we were both staunch Jeep owners.

So the girl went home and called her best bud Keith and told him about the boy.  And Keith said, "MSU grad?  Hockey player?  Drives a Jeep?  When are you getting married?"

And the girl protested and said that was not what she came to grad school for.  And Keith scoffed at her.  Keith knows her so  well.

And the boy and the girl talked and laughed and realized they had a GAZILLION things in common besides hockey and MSU and Jeeps and became friends and then kinda realized that they were dating and then kinda realized that they were exclusively dating, but they never talked about it or discussed it.  It just came so naturally.  And one day the very patriotic couple went to Arlington Cemetery to visit the grave of one of her family friends, and the girl looked up at the boy while standing in front of the grave and saw he had tears in his eyes and she knew, just knew, in her heart that she loved him. 

It wasn't long after that that she called her friend Keith and said simply, "He's the one."

And, even after a rocky road, she was right.

And they all lived happily ever after...