Friends at First Sight: How Eliza and Jules Found Their Platonic Soulmate

Eliza and Jules smiling and hugging.

True friends can be hard to come by. But for GWU sophomores Eliza and Jules, nothing could have come more naturally. 

The pair clicked instantly on the first day of their freshman year. After just days of knowing each other, their remarkable comfort with and trust in one another could easily be mistaken for that of a lifelong friendship. Their bond was so undeniable, in fact, that the Marriage Pact algorithm had no choice but to pair them together later that fall. 

Eliza:

The Marriage Pact was like, “Here’s your most ideal friend,” and I was like, “Yeah, I already knew that.”

They tell me their story with the rare mix of giddy enthusiasm and sincerity only found between true friends. 

Jules:

We met our first night of school, right when we moved in. Our dorm put on an event that night so we could all get to know each other. 

Eliza:

I actually went on a long orientation trip for the first four days of school, but I met Jules that very first night before I left. We clicked right away. She was the only person I stayed in touch with while I was on my trip. You meet hundreds of people in that first week of school, but Jules and I became friends the first night. 

I came back and we immediately hung out. We ended up going out with a group of people that night. And the next morning, I was like, “Jules, I have so much to tell you.”

We didn’t really know each other at this point at all. But we just dove right into it. We debriefed everything we had done that weekend, all the people we had met that night, and what we thought of them and everything. It seriously felt like we had been friends for so long. 

Jules:

I think our debriefs are so fun. Both of us are really good storytellers. 

Eliza:

We’re very dramatic.

Jules:

Every time we get together, it’s always this over-dramatized re-telling. 

After taking the Marriage Pact survey in November of last year, Eliza and Jules fell into the unlucky bucket of participants without a true “match,” and were assigned a platonic match instead. Clearly, the algorithm hit the nail on the head. 

Jules:

They first sent out an email that was the sneak peak of our match with their initials. I was in my dorm with my roommates when I got the initials EC. At first I thought, “I don’t know anyone with the initials EC…” But one of our friends was like, “Yeah you do—Eliza!” 

Eliza:

And Jules texted me, like, “Haha, Eliza look, my initials are EC,” which are my initials. I was like, that’s so funny, obviously it’s a sign that we’re meant to be best friends. 

And then I looked at my email and it said, “Your Marriage Pact’s initials are JP.” And at that point, we just thought it was hilarious. We didn’t even believe we could have gotten each other at this point. I thought it was just super ironic. 

Jules:

So I was like, “Everyone come down to my dorm, we’re gonna open our Marriage Pacts.” And within the next few minutes we got the actual match results. 

Eliza came into my room, and we all opened them together at the same time. It was really like a rush of adrenaline. I think I screamed, like, “ELIZA!” All I remember was jumping up and down. 

Eliza:

We were freaking out. 

Jules:

There were just hugs all around. 

Eliza:

We were so excited we didn’t read the part that said we were a friend match. So we just thought, “We’re just so perfect for each other that they had to put us together. I guess we have to get married now.”

We’ve always talked about how we were so compatible as friends, even immediately after meeting each other. And now we can really see that on paper. 

Jules:

It really affirmed my trust in the Marriage Pact. Obviously they know what they’re doing. This is obviously better than any outcome I could have expected. 

Even after their initial connection, Eliza and Jules continue to discover similarities. 

Jules:

I started dating my boyfriend in college, and about 4 months into dating him, I started to think about it. And I was like, “You know… you have a lot of similarities to Eliza.”

Eliza:

We have the same taste in everything, me and her boyfriend. I just assume that he’s listened to or watched things that I have. And he always has. 

Jules:

Yeah, Eliza has very good taste. Or at least I think it’s good taste. I rely on her for all music, movie, restaurant recommendations. I’ll take any recommendation from her. 

Most notably, Eliza and Jules share a desire for authentic connection, ability to rally a crowd, and exuberant spirit of adventure like no one else. 

Jules:

Eliza and I are very similar in our stance towards friendship. We share a lot of values in terms of prioritizing our relationships, and both really value loyalty and trust and communication. We just really get each other. 

We’re also both super outgoing. We’re very energetic, and we always wanna do something together. I’m someone who hates to be alone, and who just thinks everything is better when there’s someone else around. So that really worked out for us. 

Eliza:

We’re kind of the ones to always rally the troops. I’d say we’re also more decisive than most of our friends.

Jules:

We’re definitely the planners of our group. We love to throw parties for our friends, even for the smallest things. 

Eliza:

We also just love to do random fun things together. When we went home after our first semester, since we both live in New England, we took the train back from D.C. together. 

And we had these Christmas onesies that were full-on pajamas. So we wore them for the entire nine hour train ride. 

Jules:

I still have mine in my closet. 

Eliza:

I don’t think there’s anyone else who could have gotten me to do that. 

Eliza and Jules have become so close, they say, that their living spaces are essentially interchangeable. 

Jules:

During the award show season, we would all watch the Oscars and Grammys and everything together. So Eliza would say, “Everyone, Jules’ room, this time.”

Eliza:

I remember being on FaceTime with my mom, and I was like, “Oh, we have people over for the Met Gala.” And she was like, “Oh, do you have to go?” And I was like, “No, it’s really just Eliza’s thing, she’s just hosting in my dorm.”

Jules:

By the end of the year your dorm was like my room, so I’d just have people over there all the time. 

The pair recounted one especially touching moment they shared last year during a movie night in Jules’ room. 

Jules:

Eliza was taking a class on rom coms, where got to analyze romantic comedies and write about them. Her homework would be to watch a romantic comedy and take notes on it. 

So every Wednesday night, Eliza would come down to my dorm, and we’d sit on the couch together and watch a rom com. One time we were talking, and we thought about how cool it was that we had met our friends for the rest of our lives. It’s weird when you start getting to the age where the friends you have will be your friends into adulthood. 

And then we talked about how I want Eliza to be in my wedding. It was a really good moment, and made us think about our friendship lasting for the rest of our lives. 

Even in the midst of chaos and uncertainty, Eliza and Jules have been loyal partners to each other. 

Jules:

At the end of spring semester, the Supreme Court leaked that they might overturn Roe v. Wade. It was like 11 o’clock during finals week. We and some friends were having dinner in my dorm and just sitting around the table talking. And I turned to Eliza and said, “I want to go to the Supreme Court.” We were the only two done with finals, so we were like, “Let’s just go.”

So we hopped on our shuttle at 11:30pm and went to the Supreme Court. We met up with some friends there and protested for a while. When it was over, it was one in the morning. We didn’t want to pay for an Uber because we’re college students, and the metro had closed, and we were pretty far away from our shuttle that would take us home. 

So we were thinking we could bike, but we couldn’t find any of the city bikes. It took us like three hours to get home. Well, I don’t know, it felt like three hours. 

Eliza:

It was like a solid two hours. We both shared a scooter for a really long time. 

Jules:

We were just alone in the city at 2am trying to get home, and we were both just really sad, tired, and wiped out. 

Eliza:

That was like, our last week at school. Even though we were so exhausted, it was kind of cool since no one was out with us. It was just us scootering and biking through the city. 

I’m always happy when I’m with Jules, even if it’s a sad circumstance.

Through thick and thin, Jules and Eliza’s pure, unwavering friendship is living proof that platonic soulmates truly do exist. 

Eliza:

Jules is one of my favorite people to be around, ever. Our energies just match. If I need to be cheered up, I’ll call Jules. She just has the best, most positive energy, and it brings out my positive energy too. 

Jules:

My transition into college was so much easier because of Eliza, because we met literally the first night. I was so comfortable around you even before we had gotten to know each other.

I just immediately felt like we were good friends. That’s just so unusual to find right away. 

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