Couples on campus

With love officially in the air, couples around campus dish on how they first met and their Valentine’s Day plans with their sweethearts.

Cecilia Atilio, a 22-year-old international relations major, said she met her boyfriend Nick on the dance floor.

“I met (Nick) at Round Midnight Club downtown,” Atilio said. “We both came up to each other and started dancing—we just sort of happened. He bought me a beer and it went from there. We’ve been dating for two years now.”

For Valentine’s Day, Atilio said that she and her boyfriend will probably go out on Pearl Street.

“Maybe we’ll even go dance (at Round Midnight) again,” Atilio said.

Mikael Pryor, a 27-year-old Ph.D. candidate in mechanical engineering, said he met Tammy—his girlfriend of 20 months—a bit more untraditionally.

“I actually met my girlfriend after going on a date with her sister,” Pryor said. “ I didn’t really have chemistry with her sister though. But I got to be pretty good friends with Tammy, and eventually I asked her out. For Valentine’s Day we’re going to go to the Butterfly Pavilion.”

Jenna Herrmann, a 21-year-old senior studio arts and Spanish language and literature major, said she met her current boyfriend, John, while they were still in high school.

“His group of friends and my group of friends sort of joined,” Hermann said. “We were just friends, but eventually we started dating. At first I thought he was pretty cute, but I didn’t want to risk our friendship that had come about. It was actually a friend who pushed us towards dating.”

Herrmann said she doesn’t have any big plans for Valentine’s Day.

“We will probably just go out to dinner, and then we are going to a Pretty Lights concert later in the week.”

Jacob Vasquez, a 21-year-old junior studio art-photography major, said he met his boyfriend, Logan, at a party two months ago.

“I met (Logan) through a friend who went to high school with him,” Vasquez said. “One of my first thoughts was how much we had in common, especially our music tastes. The funny thing is that we didn’t know we were both into guys when we first met. One day, though, I wriggled my way into (Logan’s) conversation about him thinking of coming out to one of his friends. We realized we were both into guys, and that’s when we told each other we liked each other.”

For Valentine’s Day, Vasquez said he and Logan are going to a masquerade party in Fort Collins and then to dinner.

Chris Peterson, a 20-year-old junior history major, also took the “friends to more-than-just-friends” route with his current girlfriend, Jessica.

“We met in church while we were in high school and started out as just friends,” Peterson said. “Then we started dating and have now been together for four and a half years. For Valentine’s Day we are going to Rocky Mountain National Park to snowshoe. Then we’ll probably go out to dinner afterwards somewhere in Estes.”

Kelly Lane, a 19-year-old junior journalism and biology major, and 20-year-old Gregor R-Baugh, a junior international affairs major, said they also met back in high school.

“Well, that’s actually kind of deceiving because we’re not one of those couples who met when we were like 15 and have creepily stayed together until now,” Lane said.

The couple said they were just friends back in the day but were reunited when, two years later, R-Baugh needed a date for the military ball.

“It was either me or some random girl in one of his classes,” Lane said.

“I called her up to see if she would be my date to the ball, and she said, ‘Well, it’s been two years. Let’s go get coffee,’” R-Baugh said.

Lane said they have been together for nine months and plan to go out for a sushi dinner on Valentine’s Day but said they will probably be in for the rest of the day doing homework.

Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Brooke Segerberg at Brooke.segerberg@colorado.edu.