By Ni Baliness
From “friends to lovers” to “love at first sight,” many couples on campus have tropes that best represent their love.
Each trope signifies something special to each couple. For couples across the Long Beach State campus, their words of admiration for their partners never fell short.
Third-year art major, Reggina Escalante, and third-year geography major, Alex Pierce, said they met each other through a mutual friend.
“My co-worker was like ‘Oh let’s go study at the library, is it OK if I bring one of my friends along,'” Pierce said. “That was the first time we met in person, but I thought she was too cool so I didn’t talk to her or look at her or say anything.”
A couple of months later, Pierce decided to message her.
It was on Valentine’s Day when the two went on their first date, now celebrating their second anniversary of that day.
Through laughter and smiles, Escalante shared how kind her boyfriend was. Meanwhile, Pierce jokingly admitted that because Escalante is a likable person, “people would like him more as well.”
Describing their trope was simple for them.
“Friends-to-lovers,” Escalante said. “I think that’d be it.”
While the “friends-to-lovers” trope is a classic, other couples have different stories.
In the case of third-year journalism major Carly Brenner and fourth-year sociology major Devin Fontanez, the two recounted the peculiar way they first met.
“It was light stalking on my part,” Fontanez said. “I was the president of the Surf Club and we have an app where you can see everyone join and she joined and I thought she was super cute.”
From left to right, Carly Brenner and Devin Fontanez explain that it feels nice to have the option to see each other on campus, even if it’s just to say hi. Photo Credit: Ni Baliness
It was not until a party the Surf Club threw that they met each other on the water and started talking on the way back to their cars.
Since then, Brenner and Fontanez have been dating for about a year and a half.
While the two do not always bump into each other on campus because of their different majors, they said it does not take away from their appreciation for one another.
“I like how creative and open-minded he is,” Brenner said. “He’s been able to show me a lot of new things, new perspectives, new experiences and it’s been really cool.”
Although their story seemed like a friends-to-lovers ending, both were unsure of what trope they were.
“For me, it was like a random stranger and then [I] met him again coincidentally,” Brenner said.
“I’m going with strangers-to-lovers,” Fontanez said.
The smiles, laughter and shared fondness does not stop with the students of Long Beach State.
40-year-old faculty member Heather Steele Gajewski and her husband, 39-year-old Adam Gajewski both work on the CSULB campus.
Heather works as an archivist librarian at the University Library, and Adam works at Circulation.
Their story began due to an old library system of recalling books, in which a person’s borrowing period is shortened so another person can borrow the book.
“I’m a very slow reader and [a book] kept getting recalled by Heather and I was like ‘Who is this Heather’,” Adam said. “She keeps recalling the book and I’m trying to read it.”
Heather and Adam laugh about it now, but it was that book, “Discovery of Witches,” that made them aware of each other.
Adam Gajewski and Heather Steele Gajewski share how long they’ve been together on Feb. 10. Their first date was in April 2019, and by December they got engaged. However, due to COVID, they waited until 2022 to officially tie the knot. Photo Credit: Ni Baliness
As a married, working couple, having each other on the job is a great opportunity to see each other.
“We don’t work in the same office but we do work in the same building so it’s kind of nice,” Heather said.
Heather said she admires Adam’s sense of humor and positivity, and Adam praises Heather’s confidence and the way she carries herself.
At a steady growth, their love story developed from a “meet-cute” moment.
“Very much a ‘meet-cute’ of bumping into each other and fighting over the same book in the library,” Steele Gajewski said.
