Rom-com writers could take a page from Khushi and Colby’s book.
From a fated 99.85 percent match with a silent crush, to a picnic date with unforeseen obstacles, to a heartfelt exchange of I-love-yous before spending the summer an ocean apart, Bowdoin seniors Khushi and Colby have lived a story that most of us could only dream of.
The pair took the Marriage Pact for the first time at the start of their junior year. While they’d crossed paths before, it took a push in the right direction to make things stick.
Colby:
We did know of each other before matching. Bowdoin’s a small school, like 1,800 people, so we ended up in a first-year seminar together.
Khushi:
He also went to high school with one of my good friends. So we’d always seen each other in group settings, but never one on one.
Colby:
Khushi loves bringing up that I had a little bit of a crush on her beforehand.
Khushi and Colby say their friends became matchmakers the moment initials dropped.
Khushi:
When we got the email with the match initials, I think everyone tried to figure it out. We have a student directory, so people would just put in their match’s initials and see what came up.
Colby:
We kind of got our match beforehand, since our friends were very invested and basically figured it out. I got a text from the friend we have in common, like, “What are your initials?” I had just gotten back from a rugby practice and finished my shower when I saw I had 13 messages from a group of friends inquiring the same thing.
Khushi:
I was with a couple of my friends when I got the name. They were like, “Oh my god, what are you gonna do?” And I was like, “Well, I don’t know if he's gonna do anything, and I'm not one to make moves, so we’ll just play it by ear and see what happens.”
But our mutual friend had texted me, and was like, “Are you interested? Would you say yes or no to a date?” And I was like, “I wouldn’t say no if he asked me out.”
Colby wasted no time before making a move.
Colby:
I reached out the same day at 2am.
Khushi:
I went to bed and didn’t see my phone until the next morning. But I saw that he had asked me out and I said yes. I was just expecting a meal in one of our dining halls, nothing elaborate.
But then—you tell the story from here.
Colby:
I set up a picnic date for us. I went home and grabbed a bunch of Maine-related food, since I'm from Maine and she’s not. And we had a picnic date out of my car.
Khushi:
It was so funny, because the night before when we went home to make the picnic basket, he asked if I had any allergies. And I was just thinking, “Oh my gosh, that’s so sweet and considerate.” And I mentioned that I was just vegetarian, but forgot to say that I had an apple allergy.
But we were driving in the car on the way to Portland for the date, which is a 30 minute drive, and I suddenly remembered and blurted out that I was allergic to apples. He stops the car and he’s like, are you serious? And I was like, “Yeah, why?”
And he’s like, “Half the shit in the basket is apples.” He had made apple cider donuts and apple cider and a few other things. He was like, “Oh no, I ruined the date!”
Colby:
I just remember thinking, “You had one chance and you’re screwing it up.” I was scared that she wouldn't have anything to eat. But it actually ended up being a good time. We extended the date a lot longer than we expected. She loves bringing up the fact that I got an extension on my assignment so I could take her on a date.
Khushi:
You’re not doing the story justice! When he had asked me out, I was taking a bunch of lab courses and was very busy, but I had a couple hours on a very specific Sunday free. And I didn’t realize he got an extension on an extension on a paper just so he could take me out on a date.
He didn’t even know me that well, or know if it was gonna work out, but he still went out of his way to do that. He got me flowers too. He went the whole nine yards. He’s just a very big cheesy romantic. Very compassionate, very respectful. It’s very cute.
Khushi and Colby made things official later that fall—thought it admittedly took a bit of honest discussion to define the relationship.
Colby:
We had very different definitions of what it meant to be dating. For me, dating just meant going on dates.
Khushi:
For me, I think it means we’re exclusive, and the label is there. Like two weeks after our first date, he brought me coffee or something and mentioned the word dating. And I thought, “Is this his way of making it exclusive?” But it really wasn’t. We weren’t seeing other people or anything, we just had two different definitions.
But we brought that up and we were like, “This is where I’m at, this is where you’re at.” And eventually we did make it official on both sides.
While Khushi and Colby never discussed the survey questions in detail, the pair say they blend together seamlessly—in both their similarities and their differences.
Khushi:
I think “opposites attract” applies to us in some ways. We’re from totally opposite sides of the spectrum academically, and he’s also an athlete.
Colby:
I study Russian, and I also play rugby.
Khushi:
And I’m pre-med, and very much a non-athlete, so totally the opposite. But I do think that we’re both very family oriented. We’re also very hardworking and driven in our own fields, and have set really big goals for ourselves.
Colby:
I also think we blend really well together socially. Khushi is probably a bit more extroverted than me.
Khushi:
In comparison to him, I’d probably be a social butterfly. I also tend to be more anxious and more of a chatterbox. He’s very calm and more like, “It is what it is.”
Colby:
I think a lot of our similarities are just smaller things that weren’t really covered by the questions. I think we just have very similar approaches to life.
Khushi:
Yeah, I mean, we were almost a 100% match, so obviously we were pretty compatible according to the survey. And clearly it worked out very well.
The following spring, Khushi and Colby were forced to part ways for a few months—but not without a proper goodbye.
Colby:
Seven months or so into us dating, I had to leave the country to study abroad in Kyrgyzstan. We had one last date before not getting to see each other. But I just showed her around Portland, and we just had a great day. That was the first time we said “I love you.”
Khushi:
I had asked him if he was planning on saying it anytime soon, and he was like, “I was going to write you a letter before I left.” Another quality of his that I admire is that he's very intentional with his actions. He was like, “I wanted to write you a letter so you had the space to process and didn't feel pressured to say it back.”
But we ended up saying it to each other in person anyway before he left.
Colby:
It’s funny because I had actually accidentally said it like three weeks in. It was like an unconscious thing, and we debriefed and we were like, “No no no.”
But the distance worked out pretty well, actually. When I was ending the day, she was starting the day, and vice versa. It wasn't that awkward 6 hour window.
Khushi:
We still got to talk everyday, usually as I was waking up and he was going to bed. And after he came back from Kyrgyzstan, I coordinated with his parents and ended up surprising him.
Khushi and Colby say they relish the moments when they get to explain how they officially met.
Khushi:
Most of our friends on campus know what the Marriage Pact is but it’s really fun to tell the story to people who don’t know. At first, my parents were like, “Wait, how did you guys meet?” But they’ve been very supportive since day 1.
Colby:
I think my mom was waiting for somebody she could call a daughter in law, so she totally embraced it. When I went home to prepare everything for our first date, my mom was like, “Okay, you have to go here and here and here, and I called this place and reserved a bunch of croissants,” and was super into it.
After Khushi gushed about Colby’s cheesy romanticism, I asked him what he admired most about Khushi. He found it difficult to narrow down the list.
Colby:
I think a lot of it is about drive and her attention to detail. She oozes compassion and care and attention. She's a very caring person and it appears in all aspects of her life.
Khushi:
Okay okay okay, that's too much.
Love stories like this aren’t just the stuff of Hollywood romance. Keep your mind and heart open—you never know what you might walk into.
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