Matt and Laura met in Fall 2000 when we were undergraduate political science majors and had back to back classes together at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (UWEC). Laura was the annoying girl who talked about Latvia all the time and Matt was the guy who never talked (which incidentally still holds true today)! We started dating a year and half later in Spring 2002 when Laura was hired by Matt to the Board of Directors of UWEC Student Senate after he was elected Vice President of the student body.
In 2004 we moved to Seattle, Washington where we both obtained master's degrees at the University of Washington. We got engaged on our Spring Break vacation to Riga, Latvia on March 16, 2006 amid rioting and barricades at the Freedom Monument. We spent 2007-2008 long distance while Matt finished his master's degree and Laura had a Fulbright fellowship to Latvia.
In 2008 we moved to Lawrence, Kansas so Laura could pursue her PhD in Political Science and Women's Studies at the University of Kansas. Matt works as a Financial Aid Adviser for a company called Vangent, proofreads all of Laura's papers, and can't wait for Laura to finish school and finally get a real job so he can pursue his life long dream of opening a baseball card store.
