Mari and Joe met in the fall of 2009 at Harvard College’s Freshman Orientation. They were both placed in the same freshman dorm (Lionel A!) and met for a group introduction. There, they were asked to introduce themselves to the group and to each share their “deepest, darkest secret” as an icebreaker. Mari started to panic as she had no idea how to answer the question. Luckily, Joe was sitting a few seats down. He introduced himself, said he was from Albany, NY, then shared his deep, dark secret which was that he is left-handed. A relieved Mari shortly after introduced herself said she was from Kaneohe, HI, and then said her deep, dark secret was that she was ALSO left-handed.
They smirked at each other and began their friendship.
Mari and Joe became close friends during long discussions over meals in the dining hall freshman year. Together with other members of Lionel A, they decided to stay together as “link mates”, and all lived in the Quad sophomore through senior year.
In addition to dining hall meals with scholarly and not-so-scholarly conversations, Joe and Mari would grab lunch at “Fly-By” before their language classes, or hang out with the Lionel A crew on Friday nights.
In their senior year of college, Mari and Joe had begun to develop feelings for eachother. After they each struck out in trying to get the other to go on a date. They finally got it right when they went for drinks at Cambridge Common in November 2012 and confessed their feelings for eachother. They decided to try out dating, but planned to break up after graduation as Joe was heading off to grad school, Mari to med school, and both were not keen on doing a long distance relationship.
Throughout their senior spring, Mari and Joe quickly fell deeply in love. When graduation came around, they could not bring themselves to carry out their plan of breaking up and decided to do a long distance relationship.
For four years they commuted between Pittsburgh and Washington, DC. While it was difficult being apart, they cherished the time they had together and made many wonderful memories during that time.
The long-distance relationship period came to an end when Mari matched in Boston for her residency and Joe moved to Boston to do a post-doctoral fellowship before accepting a job as a professor.
In September 2020, Joe asked Mari to go for a walk along the Charles River. They walked from their apartment to Harvard Yard where they stopped outside Lionel A, the freshman dorm where they had met just over 11 years earlier. There in the quiet courtyard, Joe asked Mari to marry him. They excitedly began their chapter as an engaged couple.
Shortly after their engagement, Mari and Joe were surprised with an invitation to visit a local animal shelter. They had been on a waitlist for months and had given up hope they would be contacted. There they met and fell in love with a little puppy named Evie. She brings light, sass, and a lot of cuteness to their little family.