Sometimes it’s just a chemical reaction, impulse or irrationality that bind two people together. They never need to talk about significant things, because they just understand each other when no words are spoken.
“We’ve always been on same page of everything,” University of Idaho student Michael Ruby said.
UI student Hannah Myers and Ruby have been together for almost three years. The couple met at Columbia High School in Nampa, Idaho, while Myers was about to graduate and Ruby had one more year.
“I was going to go to the University of Arizona, so we decided not to really date,” Myers said.
Although they didn’t date, they were hanging out together constantly. They made a bucket list that had things they wanted to do together the summer before Myers left, Ruby said.
“We had like 60 things we just wanted to do,” Myers said. “So every day in the summer, we would do something different and then one day, a couple days before I was going to leave, we went out to (Lake Lowell). We sat on the dock and all of a sudden we’re both like ‘what should we do.’ So that’s how we decided to do long distance.”
The University of Arizona is around a 15-hour drive or three-hour flight away from Nampa. Despite the distance, Ruby and Myers became closer than ever as they spent almost 4-8 hours a day talking on the Skype, Ruby said. Though many relationships struggle through long distance, Myers and Ruby were able to keep their relationship going strong.
“We never really fought (while she was) gone,” Ruby said. “It is more just how much I missed her.”
It is hard to not be with each other, Myers said. During her first semester in Arizona, Ruby bought his first plane ticket to visit her there.
“I came home once for Thanksgiving break and then came home again for Christmas break, and then decided that I didn’t want to go back,” Myers said. “So then my dad and I flew back to Arizona during Christmas and got all my stuff packed and mailed them all.”
While staying home for a semester, Ruby and Myers decided to go to the University of Idaho after Ruby graduated from CHS.
Now in their second year at UI, the college environment has brought different challenges to the relationship. As a UI cheerleader, Ruby spends two to three hours with 30 girls every day, he said.
“She comes and hangs out with my team,” Ruby said. “My team loves her and they all think she’s the sweetest thing. I think that’s the biggest thing — that we talk and we’re honest to each other and there’s no secret. There’s no jealousy between us. We just trust each other.”
In one year, Myers will be graduating as she’s still one year ahead of Ruby. Not wanting to try out the long distance again, she’s decided to stay in Moscow with Ruby until he finishes his degree. Their plan afterward is to move somewhere out of Idaho, Myers said.
“Yeah and there’s engagement at the end of the line, whenever I can afford the ring,” Ruby said.
As always, they never need to talk about things like that — they are just on the same page, Myers said.
Ruby said there is nothing the two have tencountered that they can’t overcome together, especially through the challenges they had to overcome during that first year.
“We are just both very willing to make it work,” he said.