A North Carolina Love Story - Jake and Ted

Like a lot of couples, we met in college. But before we were both calling Raleigh home, we grew up with very different backgrounds.

I was raised with a small family in Mt. Airy, the small town that was the inspiration for Mayberry. I was accustomed to neighborhoods surrounded by cow pastures, a high school surrounded by green fields full of crops, and mountains ever present on the horizon. Ted grew up in Charlotte, the state’s largest city, with four siblings, and a city skyline in the distance. Fast forward a few years to my freshman year in college, and we’re both living in the state capital on North Carolina State’s campus. Living in neighboring red brick dorms, we were bound to meet. That meeting finally happened by my second semester in college, shortly before spring break. Like many colleges with dorm living, at NCSU you are booted off campus during holidays and breaks, and sent home to live with your families for a week. This can pose a challenge to a brand-new relationship, because, as everyone knows, a week apart is an eternity for a young couple. However, this love story does have a happy ending.

We’ve been happily married now for slightly more than a year and been together for over seven years. Although I came from a small family, we are now both a part of a very large family (that's a picture of all of us above), and I wouldn’t have it any other way. We were married in Boston with our families present, and had a wonderful reception in our current home town, Chapel Hill, with nearly a hundred family members and friends.

These days, Ted is a graduate student at UNC and I’m a graduate student at NCSU. We are happy to live in the only southern state without a marriage discrimination constitutional amendment, and look forward to the day when our marriage is fully and equally recognized. Although we may be a house divided between the Tar Heels and the Wolfpack, we couldn’t be happier or more in love.