For me, it all started when my roommate, Mac, began to fall for his now wife & baby mama, Katie. He brought her over for the first time and we became fast friends. Being single, without a strong friend group in NYC, and [obviously] very cool and respectable, I found myself the target of a matchmaking campaign led by the inimitable Katie Bonilla. Seeing that her best friend (Meg DUH) lived in California at the time, I’m not sure she ever really thought that it would take us this far. Truthfully, I’m not sure I did either! 

However, Meg would visit NYC often through family flight perks. Though she was marketed to me as a “Sansa Stark” type, I quickly realized that she was much more of an Ygritte (sorry, not sorry to the non-Game of Thrones fans out there). As Meg’s visits stacked up that summer in 2016, I soon began to gravitate towards her zest, originality, and love for life. Weeks went by after our first kiss and neither Meg nor I showed any urgency to acquire the other’s phone number. That is, until Katie found out and kicked my ass into gear.

We started slow with occasional Snapchats and texting, but as I grew more integrated in Katie and Mac’s friend group, and as I spent more time with Meg on her visits, things started to get real. I remember one day when the four of us planned to hang out, Mac and Katie sprung on us that they got tickets to John Oliver, leaving a heavy implication in its wake. This turned out to be Meg and I’s first date. While insiders know that this date can only be described as “unorthodox,” I think on it now and know that it was a turning point for our future. But how to cope with a coast-to-coast relationship…?

To be honest, neither of us would have, but fate opened a door. Meg got an opportunity to move to NYC through work later that year and she took it, though she’ll be the first to tell you it had nothing to do with me (suuuure 😉). Knowing this was the case, and paying her back for all of her visits, I decided to fly out to San Francisco for her birthday. The trip was incredible and we were inseparable - bonding over Moana, beer games, busting chops, and everything in between. Unsolicited and unprovoked, I drunkenly told her that she was “the coolest girlfriend I’ve ever had” before we ever broached the topic. She laughed at me blushingly and that was that, the history was written.

Soon after, I honored her with the moniker Gan (now used lovingly across my extended family and our friends) and our couple name became Ganton. I’m a lucky man. GANTON FOREVER 🥰