Our Travel Couple Love Story
Every travel couple has a love story and this is ours. Keep in mind our love story began way before our venture into the travel life.
Short version...we met in school. But let's be real that's not a very exciting answer and if you came to this blog post you clearly want a little bit more than just that.
Plus the long version is way more fun. It shows who we were and the relationship we had before we set off to travel the world together.
So here's the whole Philip and Kelsey Love Story. From the very beginning to now.
Disclosure: Links throughout the Mindful Nomadics site may make us a small commission at no additional cost to you. See our Affiliate Disclosure for more information.
Contents
How We Met
As with any love story, there is always the question of "how did you meet"? The short answer for us is grad school.
However, that answer is not very fun and leaves out all the good stuff. So if the simple answer of "at school" is not enough for you, we got you covered.
Our Research Class
We both attended graduate school for physical therapy at The Ohio State University. As first-year students, everyone had to sign up for research projects.
As with most "type A" students, a majority of our classmates stormed the front of the room to sign up quickly. This is when we realized that we have a certain trait in common...the "sit back and relax while everyone else goes crazy" trait.
This little moment also highlights how we are similar but at the same time very different. Phil waited to sign up because he really did not care and Kelsey waited to sign up because the crowd of frantic people stressed her out.
After all the other students signed up, we slowly made our way to the front to see only two options remained.
-
- We either both sign up for the two spots on the lone research project no one wanted. This was because it was a newer research class that had a lot of ambiguity involved in it.
- One of us takes the last open spot on the main research group
So in classic Phil fashion, he turned to Kelsey and said: "So are we gonna do this or what?" A hard line to resist...And so it all began. We left the other spot for the student who was absent that day and signed up together.
We dedicated ourselves to being together in a class of two people for a semester-long research project. In a crazy turn of events, the research project we were working on quickly grew.
It became a much bigger time commitment lasting the entire year and even stretched into our second year. During our second year, we ended up presenting a poster at the national PT conference.
Being "Just" Friends
Kelsey deemed Phil her best friend almost immediately and we quickly became inseparable. We did everything together and everyone got used to us kind of being a package deal. We waited for each other after every class to walk together, carpooled to any outside school event and constantly texted through every class.
Slowly but surely we were falling in love together. We were perfect as best friends and life near each other just seemed to make everything better. Unfortunately, becoming more than friends had a few problems...
- Kelsey was engaged to another guy who was completely wrong for her and denied, even to herself, how she felt.
- Phil, not wanting to get in the way, completely hid his feelings from Kelsey and decided he would be there only as a best friend.
We tried for a while to stay best friends while being in love with one another and not even knowing how the other one felt. It all came to an end when we presented our poster in Vegas together. Who knows if it was the lack of sleep or shiny bright lights but we finally admitted our feelings.
Phil got tired of explaining to Kelsey why he could not date another classmate who Kelsey was relentlessly trying to match him up with. It was time to come clean that this other relationship could never work with his true feelings. Plus the matchmaking progress was only happening because when you love someone so much you want them to be happy.
Trying to do what was right, nothing happened. Phil kept his distance as Kelsey processed everything. Before the week was done it was clear what needed to happen and she went back home to finally call quits on her already failing previous relationship.
Then after a few weeks (or one), we realized we had already stayed away from each other for too long and it was time to finally do what made us happy and just be together. Friends and family were far from surprised as everyone else could see what we tried being blind to...our love for each other masked as just a "friendship".
Dating
Once we were finally together, we knew it was end game. We dated for the last year and a half of grad school and it was amazing.
Life is very easy when you hang out with your best friend all day. We would work out together, go to all the school functions, and in our off time go on adventures.
Both of us individually had a love for travel so coming together almost heightened it more. Kelsey had always wanted to try traveling PT and Phil thought it sounded great so both of us knew traveling around America was our plan for the future.
While still in school, we went on small getaways with our favorite destination being Gatlinburg. With the proximity to Ohio and being grad students, it was the perfect couple or friend vacation.
Our Engagement
Sometimes being in grad school while dating can lead to a distance relationship. While we had a summer of internships (or clinicals as the PT world calls it) we were apart for 20 weeks. At first, Phil was in Ohio when Kelsey went to Houston, and then Kelsey was in Ohio while Phil was in Seattle.
Of course, we missed each other like crazy but this was part of the school process. Even though we didn't love the distance it was only temporary.
Near the end of our time apart came a day we both would never forget.
While working one Friday Kelsey ripped her pants...they were older pants and the entire seam split. Trying some quick thinking she stapled her pants back together to finish the day. When the time came to drive home the staple finally gave up completely and she knew she would have to run inside to change. Luckily she did have a long cardigan on that day.
At the same time, Phil spent his night taking a red-eye across the country. Then while Kelsey worked he developed a plan for a perfect engagement. So, in the end, Phil waited in a box on Kelsey's mom's doorstep...in Ohio in the summer.
Obviously, when Kelsey got home her family was anxious for Kelsey to "open her package". With the pants disaster, she didn't have time just yet and went in to change.
Her mom was very strange about her going into her own room (Phil's stuff was in there). After getting some quick items Kelsey finally changed...then went to make a snack. Luckily her stepdad did some quick thinking and convinced Kelsey to come open the box.
So Kelsey finally opened the box and out popped Phil.
Then after some hugs and kisses, Phil got down on one knee and proposed. The entire moment was perfect, even the crazy parts.
Our Wedding
After TWO WEEKS of being engaged, we got married! Yep, that's right, we had a really short engagement.
The wedding planning was stressful in seconds and was quickly turning into pleasing everyone else instead of us. The conversation one night had Kelsey saying "we should have eloped while we had the chance" to which Phil said "we still can, let's do it"
There was a little bit of Kelsey of saying we can't, can we? But guess what? We could and we did. Everything came together perfectly. Phil was in Seattle and Kelsey was already flying out to visit.
While Phil was planning the ceremony in Vancouver, Canada Kelsey was getting her dress and the wedding bands. It worked out perfectly because Kelsey was able to find the perfect dress for her, right off the rack!
Meanwhile, Phil was able to get the marriage license without any problem (he didn't even need Kelsey to be there!) and was able to plan the wedding at a beautiful park with an officiant they found online.
When the day came a couple of weeks later, everything was perfect. Kelsey flew in on Friday night and we drove up to Vancouver, Canada. We stayed at a great little bed and breakfast and in the morning, Phil watched soccer while Kelsey got ready.
Then we headed over to the officiant's house who was nice enough to let Kelsey get dressed upstairs and even took a reveal picture for us. She was so great she had two friends join to be witnesses and be our camera crew for the day.
When the time came to say I do, we had scouted locations the day before in the park for the perfect spot. We found that spot right by a waterfall and a bridge. It felt secluded even in a park full of people. We had a short and simple ceremony, which was all we wanted, and then we were happily married!
For both of us, it was so stress-free and easy that it was the perfect way for us to get married. We couldn't imagine doing anything different and we always tell people to elope because it was absolutely perfect for us.
After the wedding, we drove back down to Seattle for the night and spent the night at the Alexis Hotel in downtown Seattle. It was a perfect stay and the next morning Phil, you guessed it, watched soccer while Kelsey slept. It was the beginning of the rest of our lives with Phil waking up early for sports and Kelsey sleeping happily next to him.
And then we lived happily ever after traveling the world!
