No one makes love look effortless like Britney and Jeffrey.
I met the pair for the first time last summer, and was instantly struck by their chemistry and ease with one another. They’d been dating for over a year at the time—thanks to some help from the Northeastern Marriage Pact survey—but it was hard to believe it hadn’t been longer.
Britney and Jeffrey are now coming up on two and a half years together. I followed up with the couple this fall, which resulted in an hour-long discussion of their post-grad overseas excursions, riveting tales from their new workplaces, and hopes for the future. While talking with Britney and Jeffrey, love seems simple and laughter is inevitable. Their energy was so infectious, it was hard to end the call.
Last we spoke, Britney and Jeffrey were entering their fifth year of their respective programs, which they luckily finished one semester early. After conferring their degrees in December, the pair embarked on an unforgettable adventure before starting full-time work in the spring.
Britney:
After we graduated…
Jeffrey:
We went to Vietnam together!
Britney:
Yeah, we took a graduation trip to Vietnam and Thailand! It took three weeks. We started in the south of Vietnam and traveled all the way up.
Jeffrey:
We toured the entire country of Vietnam in like two and a half weeks. It was crazy. We took overnight trains, buses, vans. It was so sick. We ate so much food. And I usually get food poisoning, but I didn’t this time. Every day we would wake up at the crack of dawn, and then we would go to sleep at almost midnight, just because we traveled so much.
Britney:
We’re very similar people in general, but I think it was especially really fun because our travel styles are very compatible. He just goes along with anything.
Jeffrey:
I’m just like, “Yeah, let’s do it,” you know?
Britney:
So I basically planned the entire trip. I’d send him something like, “Okay, we’re gonna go here and here and here,” and he’d be like, “Sounds perfect.” He’s down for anything, which I love.
Britney gave me an overview of her itinerary.
Britney:
We started in Saigon, Ho Chi Minh. We spent maybe two days in each city. The first half of the trip was a lot more tiring, a lot more adventurous. After two and a half weeks, we were kind of exhausted by that point. Which was good, because I planned for that. So we went to Halong Bay and to Hanoi, we did a nice long cruise, and we just hung out in beautiful, scenic places towards the end of the trip.
It’s hard to summarize in a few sentences because we just did so much. We did adventurous things, but then also very peaceful things, just looking at temples or at the scenery. We did everything.
Jeffrey:
We went from like, dense, overpopulated cities and eating street food, to islands in the water where you have to get around by cruise. It looked like one of those iPhone wallpapers. We would go to a forest, then an old abandoned temple, and then back to a big city. 10 out of 10 bussin’. It was high-key amazing. Britney also made videos of our entire trip.
Britney:
We both travel together a lot. So I was like, “Why don’t I start making videos instead of having all these photos?”
I gave them the near-impossible task of choosing a favorite location.
Britney:
I think I liked Hanoi the best. Hanoi is the capital, in the north of Vietnam. I think that was my favorite because it’s a busy city, but not as busy as Saigon. Saigon is super, super cramped with people and a little overwhelming.
But with Hanoi, you still get the city vibe, but it’s also a developing city. So you’ve got street food, and night markets, and all those fun aspects. I don’t know, I just loved it. The markets were fun, the food was good, the food was cheap. Which is like, literally all we care about.
Jeffrey:
I’m not usually a shopaholic. But I remember when we went to the street markets, we were bargaining so hard that I was obsessed with buying whatever I could. It didn’t really matter what I was getting, the only thing that mattered was how I could get it for the absolute lowest price. It was like a competitive sport.
Britney:
I’ve never seen him love shopping. I love shopping, but he’s always the one who is like, “Eh, you don’t need that.”
But when we went to the Vietnam street markets, everyone’s always haggling and trying to get the best deal. And he just fell in love with it. Every single day, he was like, “Yeah, let’s go shopping!”
Jeffrey:
I was like, “Oh, we’ve got an extra five dollars? We’ve gotta buy something.”
Britney:
We kind of made it a game while we were there. We were like, “We have to get at least 50 percent off anything in order to buy it.”
Jeffrey:
We got some pretty funny reactions from people because we just haggled them so hard. They were like, “Just take your crap and go.”
We bought Nike slippers for a 45% discount. This guy was like, “I could’ve been selling this to other people for 20% off, but no.” In broken English, he was basically like, “Take your shit and get out of my face.”
Britney:
He was like, “You wasted my time!”
Jeffrey:
“You wasted my time, wasted my money, get out of here!”
Britney:
We felt a little bad.
Jeffrey:
But it’s all business.
Britney and Jeffrey’s Vietnam trip was just the most recent edition to their impressive catalog of domestic and overseas expeditions together—from Mexico and Costa Rica to Atlanta and New York. While they’ve barely scratched the surface of their bucket list, there’s no doubt they’ve chosen the right travel buddy.
Jeffrey:
The one thing I’d say I have learned about Britney while traveling with her is that I like her a lot, and I will continue to like her a lot. We’ve had a lot of cool adventures together.
Britney:
I think a lot of couples find it difficult the first time they travel together. Because you're living with that person, you’re tired, you’re hungry. But I honestly didn’t find any of it difficult with him. Traveling together has been, for the most part, just very fun. I think we’re really good at communicating with each other, and he understands me very, very well.
Jeffrey:
Sometimes when we’re tired, we get a little snappy at each other, but that’s okay because she just gets hangry a lot.
Britney:
I do get very hangry. But honestly, everything is just very easy with him. We just have a lot of fun, we don’t argue a lot, we communicate with each other about how we’re feeling. So traveling together is great because we’re both very adventurous, we’re both open to doing new things, trying new things, eating new things. It’s just really great having someone who is down to do everything with you. It’s like having an adventure buddy.
Before their official graduation ceremony in May, Britney and Jeffrey relocated to the Bay Area to start full-time work. In an extremely fortunate twist of events, Britney and Jeffrey landed jobs not only in the same city, but at the same company.
Jeffrey:
I interned at Tesla before graduating. But before I became full time, Britney got a job there. I was in the interview process for so long that I almost gave up and looked for a job somewhere else. But finally my old boss came through and gave me an interview, and we ended up both working for Tesla.
Britney:
During his internship, I knew he would probably end up working at Tesla, so I thought I might as well apply. I think I got really lucky. I ended up getting my offer in December, and Jeffrey got his offer in February. He had another job prospect in Florida, so I was kind of scared he’d end up there. I’m very happy that he’s here with me.
I think it was kind of stressful for him during our Vietnam trip, because I had my job secured, but things were still kind of up in the air for him. But we still had a lot of fun.
Jeffrey:
She’d be sipping coffee, looking at the mountains, like, “I’m soooo relaxed right now.” And I’d be shaking and breathing super hard like, “Yeah, everything’s fine.”
Britney:
He stayed with me for a bit before getting his job, and moved into his own apartment once he did. But he’s still over here all the time.
Britney and Jeffrey say that the move has provided them a blank slate, a chance to carve out their lives together outside of their social circles at Northeastern.
Britney:
Moving to a new city together was kind of an interesting transition, because we don’t have any family or friends here. He had a couple of people he knew from his internship that we see from time to time. But for the most part, it was just us two. I’m really glad he was here to help me settle in, and that I’m not alone.
Jeffrey:
I think one interesting thing is that when we were in Boston, we could hang out with our own friends individually and then have them come together very comfortably. But here, we kind of have to redefine who we are as a pair in new settings.
Like, when we’re meeting new people for the first time together, what kind of impression of our relationship do we want to leave with these people? Are we an “Ooh ooh, ga ga” type of couple where people are like, “What are they doing?” Or are we like, “Hey, what’s up, we’re super cool and we don’t PDA at all.” Who are we in this new place? I think it’s a really interesting dynamic when we’re inserting ourselves into other friend groups and redefining who we are.
Britney:
I think one of the biggest things recently, at least, is that when we were in Boston we were stuck at the hip. And we still kind of are, we still do want to hang out 24/7, but we haven’t been able to see each other every day because of work. So it’s kind of forced us to not be stuck at the hip.
Jeffrey:
She’s got her own hobbies, I’ve got my own hobbies, and we have our own individual things going on. But then we come together to be a couple.
Britney:
I think it’s been kind of good for us, because we love each other so much that we just want to be together and not do anything else. But it’s forced us to make friends outside of our circles now that we’re in a new city. So it’s been interesting, but I think we’ve grown from it. We have a healthier balance now.
Britney tells me that she’s working in software engineering on a data analytics platform, while Jeffrey works in the paint shop on mechanical equipment design. Working full-time has undoubtedly been a big adjustment—especially for Jeffrey, who has had to endure a brutal work-life balance over the past couple of months.
Jeffrey:
At first I worked in the morning, and we were both chilling and having a lot of fun. I’d come over to her place to cook with her a lot and just relax. But then I switched to night shift, which I’m on from 5pm to about 6am Sunday through Thursday. So I don’t get to see her as much because I’m so exhausted. It’s nice though because we do get together on the weekends. We like to travel a little, take long drives. And we make some killer food together. We made a clam linguini last week.
Britney:
We like to cook a lot. But he’s been on night shift for the last two months, so I pretty much only see him on Saturday and Sunday morning. He’s luckily almost done with night shift, but he has it a lot rougher than I do right now. My job is a lot more chill.
Jeffrey:
Yeah, so, let me paint a picture.
Strap in, folks.
Jeffrey:
Okay, so I'm like, slaving away, ass crack of dawn, it’s like 2 in the morning. There’s a problem in the plant. Production’s down. We’re in there, gas masks on, full suit on to prevent formaldehyde eating our skin, and we have five minutes to fix the robot before it gets billed to us because every minute down is like, X amount of dollars. I’m dripping sweat, shaking it off of my face because I can’t wipe my eyes. There’s paint everywhere. Alarms blaring. People screaming. Someone’s like, “WHERE’S THE WRENCH??” So we’re scrambling to find the wrench. Someone drops it, and we’re like, “What’s wrong with you, get another one, get another one!” And we’re running around, there’s like five people in there, someone’s yelling “MOVE!”, we’re knocking each other down. And then I get paint in my hair, I’m like, “Shit!”, still crawling around on the ground, and then someone’s like, “I got it I got it I got it!”. Then we finally get the thing moving, and we’re like “Phew!” Everyone takes off their masks and gloves, we’re all sweating, there’s paint dripping everywhere.
And then I get a text from Britney, like, “Heyyy omg, we just went to a company lunch together!!”
Britney:
“We just went to get sushi!”
Jeffrey:
She’ll be complaining, like, “The soda machine’s down!” or something.
Britney:
“The Bevi's not working!”
Jeffrey:
She’s like, “My chair’s not as fluffy as the other day…” And I’m like, “You guys have chairs?”
Britney:
My work is by no means chill, because it’s still Tesla. But there’s at least some semblance of work-life balance.
It’s clear that Britney has been nothing but a bright spot for Jeffrey in the midst of unrelenting chaos.
Britney:
I try to support him when I can. I’ll try to make food for the both of us so he doesn’t have to cook after a 14 hour shift.
Jeffrey:
Some days I can be a real debby downer because I’m so tired mentally and physically. But I go to visit Britney, and I’m instantly like, “The world is so great.” And we cook together, we eat together, and she’s like “This is so tasty!!” and I’m like, I love her so much.
I would say the thing I admire about Britney most is that no matter what happens, she’s like a little ray of sunshine all the time. She’s so happy-go-lucky. She’s so good at her core. That’s the thing I’ve grown to love more and more. It’s just so special and pure.
Britney:
Damn, I’m getting emo over here. That’s so sweet.
Before parting ways, I asked Britney to share one thing she admires about Jeffrey, too.
Britney:
Something I admire…it’s hard because I admire so much.
Jeffrey:
Aw, that’s so sweet.
Britney:
Wait, I’m thinking! At least in the last year, one thing I’ve really admired is how tough he is. He’s going through a lot at work, and even though sometimes he’s tired—which is totally understandable—he’s been such a trooper through it all. He doesn’t let it affect our relationship at all.
Jeffrey:
No ma'am.
Britney:
I think it’s really difficult, because when you’re going through something like that at work it’s so easy to bring it back home. But he hasn’t done that. He doesn’t complain or take it out on me, he just leaves work at work. When he comes over he’s just fully committed to spending quality time together. I really admire that because it’s not easy to do.
Jeffrey:
I’m a big proponent of whatever I do at work stays at work. When I visit her I just leave all my work stuff. It’s like just stuffed in a corner. I don’t visit that corner, I don’t think about that corner. It’s the forbidden corner.
Britney:
I don’t hear about his work super often. I often wonder, like, “How is he doing that?”
Jeffrey:
To the average person, I handle a lot. But I just leave that at work, come hang out with Britney, and be enlightened by her ray of sunshine.
Cynics, never fear. Love is alive and well.