I talked to Anna over the phone one warm day last summer. Right at the start, Anna introduces me to both herself and her boyfriend, who she’s living with.
Anna: He’s in the back of the house — I’ll just give you his intro. I’m Anna. I’m gonna be a junior next year. And my boyfriend’s name is Dorian.
I ask her to tell me the story of how they met, about a year before they took the Marriage Pact.
Anna: We started dating during my gap year. We had met in our freshman dorm — I was good friends with his roommate, so we saw each other a lot. I always thought he was cute, but I had a boyfriend from high school. So it wasn’t even an option, you know?
During my gap year, I was hanging out with one of my friends on campus. I was trying to call an Uber, but the driver wanted me to do a whole-ass 0.5 mile walk away from where I was. So I was like busting my ass to get there. And randomly, Dorian was standing there — he yelled my name, so I turned around to say hi, and was like, damn — he fine. Then he texted me, and I texted him, and we started dating. There were just a lot of circumstances that kind of went right.
Major shoutout to that Uber driver and his lack of directional sense. Anna and Dorian had dated for close to a year when the annual Stanford Marriage Pact rolled around.
Anna: We filled out the Marriage Pact independently. I don’t think we had each other in mind when we filled it out. I do the Pact every year and always meet crazy people. I’ve always DM’d them or gone out to coffee with them. They’re always like, total weirdos and I love it!
That’s the spirit, Anna.
Anna: But then when we got our results this year, it was just like…each other. And we freaked out for a little bit. I was like you gotta be kidding me — this is ridiculous. Honestly, we have very different political views and things like that, so it’s interesting that we got matched. I think we both prioritize family and lifestyle a lot.
I ask Anna the million-dollar question: Do you think you’re compatible?
Anna: I think we’re compatible.
She turns to her boyfriend — I can hear the phone rustling.
Anna: What do you think, do you think we’re compatible?
A brief pause.
Dorian: Nah.
They both laugh. Anna tells me more.
Anna: In terms of personality, we’re pretty much opposite. I’m super extroverted and he’s super introverted. He’s an INTJ and I’m an ENFP, so opposite on everything except for the second letter — which is apparently the one you have to be aligned on. We approach things very differently: I’m crazy, and he’s very grounded.
Dorian chimes in:
Dorian: I think we share a lot of the same views on life. Our personalities are different, but everything else…it just works.
Anna and Dorian’s is a sweet story, from frosh year to uber-ordained romance to algorithmic justification. As far as the Marriage Pact’s take—we’re pretty proud of our work on this one, y’all.
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