Our Story

Guadalupe and Harrison met at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) in the fall of 2022, when he returned to complete his undergraduate degree in computer science and she worked in the College of Engineering. Lupe’s office was in a space Harrison frequented as a student, where their first interactions were little more than occasional hellos through a glass wall. Over time, those brief encounters grew into conversations and, when he began working alongside her in the fall of 2023, turned into a friendship.

Over the next year, their friendship grew through countless conversations and shared events. As he graduated with his bachelor’s degree and began his graduate program at UCR, their friendship continued to flourish, even as their paths began to change. What started as a friendship gradually became something more, and as his time at UCR was drawing to a close, the feelings between them became impossible to ignore. After Harrison graduated with his master’s degree in June 2025, he took Lupe on their first date—and three days later, they became a couple.

Over the next year, they traveled, met each other’s families, and discovered how naturally their lives fit together. During their month-long trip to Japan in March 2026, he became certain that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.

Five months later, in August 2026, he proposed!

What started with a glass wall and an occasional hello became a friendship, then a love story, and now the beginning of forever.