After growing up on opposite sides of the country, Rachel and Seth both found their way to Tufts University in Medford, MA in the fall of 2000.   Both were assigned to Houston Hall for their freshmen dorm.   However, Seth lived way down in the basement (or the "O-zone" as it was known), and Rachel lived on the 3rd floor on the other end of the building.   Their paths may never have crossed if it weren't for a fated event that happened toward the end of their first semester.

Rachel and a few of her good friends had volunteered to be on the Hillel Freshmen Retreat Committee which meant that they had to try to recruit other first year Jewish students to come on the weekend-long retreat.   One day, Rachel and her friend, Carrie, were making the rounds in Houston Hall and handing out flyers to any students who had ever expressed any interest in Hillel.   Secretly, they were also hoping to meet some cute boys.   Seth was on their list, so they visited his room down in the O-zone and did their best to convince him to come on the retreat. One of the first things Rachel ever said to Seth was something like, "Whoa, that's a weird computer monitor" - very romantic indeed.   (Seth had this giant Mac monitor that was all see-through with the insides all showing.)   I guess Rachel and Carrie did a pretty good job convincing, because Seth went on the retreat.

Although the two didn't really spend any quality time together on the retreat, it was on the walk back to the dorm after they returned that they remembered that they lived in the same dorm.   "I'll come visit you sometime," said Seth.   "Yeah, whatever," Rachel thought to herself.   But did he visit!   And visit...and visit.   Seth knew he liked Rachel, but now it was his turn to convince her of something.   Seth and Rachel became good friends, but it wasn't until the following school year that they finally got together.

At the start of their sophomore year, Rachel and Seth were again living in the same dorm and spending increasingly more time together.   Slowly, Rachel began to realize that Seth was everything she was looking for in a guy.   After attending a semiformal together, they finally had their first official date on November 2, 2001 at a beloved Thai restaurant called Spice in Harvard Square... and they've been together ever since!