When I was younger and trying to figure out where exactly I fit into this world and what kind of people I wanted to surround myself with, I remember thinking it seemed as though coolness had a way of finding fellow coolness – and I, on the other hand, much to my dismay at the time – was far more quirky and weird than I was cool.

However, we grow older and often learn to not only accept these oddities, but also to recognize that they make us who we uniquely are; and sometimes, they end up being the qualities that lead us to the people who will ‘get’ us most. So, when Jennifer was in high school and her friend from a neighboring town told her she should meet this guy, Patrick, because they were “both pretty weird”, it was one of those conversations that likely was expected to be minor in the grand scheme of her life, considering she was in high school and had plenty of years and experiences ahead of her. But weirdness also has a way of finding fellow weirdness, and sometimes, the person you meet when you’re a teenager who not only gets you and your quirks, but also matches them, ends up being the person you’ve just gotta spend the rest of your life with.

So Jennifer took her friend’s advice, and she met Patrick for the first time when he had a baseball game in her town; she told him to steal home for her, and then of course, he did. They became friends, but nothing serious developed at the time – they both went off to college and did their own thing, found their ways in the world – and then graduated, and eventually found their way back to each other and began dating. Years later, Patrick would ask Jen to go for a walk one day, and on this walk he would lead her to the baseball diamond, where he would propose to her in that same spot where they had first met.

When I started this job, I had no idea how much I would love getting to know these people, who are formally considered to be my ‘clients’ – how much I would enjoy learning about their lives, and their relationships, and the ways they banter and laugh and quietly show their love for one another between the jokes. And yet, fittingly enough, this job has had a way of leading me to the kind of people this former-wannabe-cool-kid actually wants to surround herself with – they’re fun, and kind-hearted, and at their core, they’re the absolute perfect amount of weird.