Partway through semester one of online school in November, Maddison Fal, a GBC game programming student, missed the midterm for an elective because of a COVID test.

Fortunately, this elective was offered for a couple of periods, and the teacher allowed her to take the midterm with another class. Arriving in that Blackboard Collaborate classroom, everything was already different. No one spoke up in her course and she was suddenly in an environment where everyone was turning their mics on and sharing their thoughts. Already filled with excitement about how much she preferred this period, she was dropped into a breakout room for the midterm which was an in-class group assignment.

Sitting, unknowingly, on the other mic was her future girlfriend Julia.

Julia Kuhl-Drury, a GBC student in the special events management program was a regular in that course. They started talking and hit it off right away, continuing to chat for hours after the class had ended.

“We stayed in the class call for like an hour after class ended just talking,” says Kuhl-Drury. “More like several hours” chimes in Fal.

They moved their call onto Discord and talked for around the next 8 hours.

“We just kept calling after that,” says Kuhl-Drury.

From there, they jumped into a relationship and continued to talk regularly but due to COVID they were unable to meet in person.

“It was pretty immediate,” says Kuhl-Drury. “We wanted to be together.”

Come January, they were able to see each other for the first time. With Kuhl-Drury living in Brampton and Fal living in Mississauga, Kuhl-Drury drove out to get groceries in Fal’s area. They proceeded to hang out and talk in Kuhl-Drury’s car.

“Best grocery shopping day I’ve ever had,” says Fal.

With ongoing lockdown and restrictions, during their over six-month relationship, they have only gotten to see each other five times, including the day at the grocery store.

“It was really difficult to not be able to see each other. It still is because like until today, we hadn’t seen each other in like a month so that just kind of sucks,” says Kuhl-Drury.

Fal and Kuhl-Drury are both sad they weren’t able to celebrate Pride Month in person with the community. Fal has been able to attend previously and loved it whereas Kuhl-Drury has never been. They feel as though getting to see each other is enough in the meantime.

“I really miss it. I had my first Pride just before COVID kicked in and I absolutely loved it I can’t wait to go back” says Fal.

“This is a very small thing, but I got my very first pride flag! There hasn’t been a ton that we’ve done but I guess just seeing each other is celebration enough,” says Kuhl-Drury.

It’s been a tough year, but they are positive about the future and believe others can find the connection that they did through online school if you turn your mic on and put yourself out there.

“I’m confident we’ll figure it out. We’ve been figuring it out so far,” says Kuhl-Drury. “It’s definitely less ideal than getting to see her more often but we’ll figure it out.”

“We’ve been doing alright so far and honestly considering things are starting to open up again, at least a little bit, it looks like we’ll be able to do a lot more,” says Fal. “Things are getting better and better every day.”

“Online class can be rough but honestly, if you throw on your mic and have some fun chats with people they get really fun and you meet some really fun people. So keep on trucking with those,” says Fal.