Love was in the air last week as Hamline students celebrated Valentine’s Day. Sophomore Evan Nelsen and junior Sarah McCollum met at Hamline and have now been dating for over a year. Nelsen and McCollum met during fall orientation and were in the same FYSEM. But they may have met each other sooner without realizing it.

“We found out later we were in the same Piper Preview [SOAR],” McCollum said. “He was sitting in front of me in Sundin and I have a Snapchat video of the back of his head.”

Nelsen noted that this was an interesting thing to discover later on in their relationship.

“[My friend] and I were sitting next to each other and I think you can hear what we’re saying too,” Nelsen said.

Nelsen and McCollum enjoy doing activities together, including going out for walks with dogs, binge watching The Suite Life of Zack and Cody on Disney+ and playing board games. They cited mancala and cribbage as some of their favorites.

“We’re very competitive, both of us, so it’s really not fun to watch us play,” Nelsen said.

McCollum, an RA and Nelsen, an NSM from the past fall semester also joked about their different student leadership positions.

“The biggest reason we’re still together is to show that NSMs and RAs can be friends,” McCollum said.

On a more serious note, McCollum added that some of her favorite things about her partner are his demeanor and how he interacts with others.

“He’s really caring and he’s really loyal to his friends. Anyone who talks about him is like ‘he’s so nice, he’s so kind’ and I think that’s a really important thing to have,” McCollum said.

Nelsen had similarly kind things to say in return.

“Sarah keeps things very light. Although she can stress about things in her own life,  she can be very, very sweet and amazing to everybody else and make things a little less stressful,” Nelsen said.