When Joanna and Carol met as college freshmen living across the hall from each other,

they clicked instantly.

They were part of the same friend group, stayed up late making snide jokes,

and shared a connection that felt effortless.

But it wasn't until their senior year,

after many years of near misses and what are we doing, Lances,

that they finally fell into a full-blown romance. And then life happened. Joanna moved to London for grad school, Carol Stain, Ohio,

and what began as a deep and magnetic love story unraveled in the quiet, painful way that long-distance romances so often do,

especially when you're young, unmoored, and still figuring out who you are. The two of them

went nearly two decades apart. Joanna married someone else and had children. Carol moved to

California, pursued a music career, and got

married too. But every so often their paths would cross, and the chemistry was definitely

still there. Then one night, nearly 18 years after they first met, they found themselves

in the same bar, and this time, the timing was

finally right.

This is a story about first love, lost love, and the long, complicated road back to the person

who always felt like home.

Thank you. like home. So I am so excited to be here talking to you both today. You know, I have my own, I think of it as a second chance love story myself that both inspired my novel and inspired me to want to do this podcast with Joe to hear other people's stories of reconnecting, you know, sort of later in life.

So I would love to hear your story. Let's just start there and, you know, sort of at the beginning

and take us back however many years ago that was. I guess that starts when we're 18.

So we met when we were living on the same hallway at our freshman dorm at O'Reillan College,

on the second floor, a fair child dorm.

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