will you be my Valentine?

Last summer, I encountered two different couples who met through the University of Kentucky agriculture program. So I pitched a feature about these love stories, which we published this week for Valentine’s Day. I hope you’ll read the story here:

Love grows here: Three University of Kentucky couples who met as agriculture students

In a couple of the interviews, I mentioned that I, too, met my spouse through an agriculture program — though it was at Kentucky State University, not UK. I started at KSU during the pandemic, so I worked from home and didn’t meet many colleagues for almost a year. One of my first in-person projects was interviewing KSU master’s graduates for a series of videos. I worked with my then colleagues and now dear friends Kris, Aidan and Jonathan.

June 30, 2021, was a hot day, and we set up the interview in a shadeless spot on KSU’s campus. In my journal I called it the “hottest place possible” and wrote that it was miserable. Our interviewee was the manager of KSU’s Environmental Education and Research Center, who had graduated with his master’s in environmental science a couple years earlier. 

A screenshot from the interview.

“Hi, I’m Loui Ross,” he said to begin the video.

We kept having to pause our interview for passing cars then for a lawnmower. During one of those pauses, with the camera still rolling, Loui said, “I unfortunately signed up for a pickleball league.” His resigned tone of voice is funny in hindsight because he’d spend the next two years inviting all of us to come play pickleball with him. Imagine our surprise if a time traveler had interrupted and said, “Hey, interviewer and interviewee: You’re going to take photos together on a pickleball court on your wedding day.”  

Loui was — of course because it was warmer than 40 degrees — wearing shorts, and I noticed the Deathly Hallows tattoo on his leg right away. I asked him about it, which led us to talk about other nerdy franchises.

“Our interviewee, Louis, was cool; we talked about Doctor Who and Supernatural,” I wrote in my journal. This was back when I didn’t know whether to spell his pronounced nickname as Loui or Louis.

Loui was a colleague for a while, then he was a work friend for a long time, then in quick succession he was one of my best friends, my boyfriend, my fiancé, my husband. As a person who loves interviewing as part of my job and now teaches interviewing to students, I find it quite special that it all started with him as my interviewee.

I just texted Loui and asked if he’d answer my favorite go-to interview question, which is, “What are you most excited for?” My Valentine replied, “Doing things for you.” I hope you feel similarly loved and spoiled and celebrated this Valentine’s weekend.