Terry and Amanda met in college when they both attended Illinois Wesleyan University; they fell in love when they were young, and figuring out who they each were, and unsure of where life would take the two of them. Terry had grown up on the south side of Chicago, while Amanda had grown up on the north, so there was some distance between the two of them whenever they’d go back home during the summers and school breaks. Because of this, downtown Chicago became their meet up spot – their central location, if you will. They would each take their respective train into the city, and meet in the middle, exploring Chicago with one another.
During their engagement session, we walked down Madison toward Millennium Park, which was the route Amanda would take every time she got off the train at Ogilvie to meet Terry. As we walked, they shared stories with me about those early years – the college days, the first impressions, the train rides.
The thing I’ve always loved about couples that met in college is the way in which they waded through the unknown together. So many of us are just feeling our way through life at that point, and learning about ourselves, and the world around us. As Terry and Amanda grew older, life threw grad school programs and new jobs at them. They learned how to chase their individual dreams with multiple states between the two of them, while rooting each other on and maintaining their relationship despite the miles.
After their years of dating, and of persevering through the long distance game and eventually finding a way to do their dream chasing in the same state, Terry proposed to Amanda on New Years Eve, a holiday they had spent together in Chicago every year since their relationship had begun. He got down on one knee at the Lincoln Park Zoo Lights with the Chicago skyline in front of them, so we revisited the same spot for the first time since their proposal, as they took in that same skyline in the daylight. Knowing how much those Chicago summer afternoons have always meant to Terry and Amanda made me feel that much luckier to spend this day with them, and to simply have the chance to know and photograph them in the first place.
