Meet cutes: showmances, sex after shakespeare and serendipity

Nora James Eikner and Lucca Silva

Communication fourth-years Nora James Eikner and Lucca Silva met for the first time at the Governor School for the Arts, an acting intensive camp for students from Tennessee. At the time, however, their connection didn’t quite take off. The camp was split into two groups—Eikner in “Salt,” Silva in “Pepper”—and someone who wasn’t the fondest of Silva got in Eikner’s head.

“At camp, I was told he was bad news,” said Eikner, laughing. 

Although they technically met in high school, it wasn’t until First Night Northwestern that they officially connected. “He was the only person I knew coming into Northwestern, and so during First Night Northwestern, I was like…‘can we please get together?’” Eikner recalled. “We talked for so many hours that night.”

The two grew closer throughout their senior Fall Quarter, when they were cast as married partners in the Wirtz Center’s production of The Addams Family—Silva as Gomez, Eikner as Morticia. They started spending time together every day, even outside of rehearsals. However, at the time, romance seemed unlikely—at least to Silva.

“A big reason why I was like, ‘this is normal’ is because she had been out as a lesbian for like, all of college, so I was like…there’s no way this could happen,” he said.

“Hashtag cool normal friends,” Eikner chimed in. 

But their daily texting began to blur the lines, and after a Halloween party, Eikner confronted him. “She turns to me and she goes, ‘Do you text anyone as much as you text me?’” Silva said. “That was the watershed moment. It made me realize I needed to be honest with myself about how I was feeling.” The two continued to text every day throughout winter break, and eventually ended up driving back to campus together. Not soon after, they became official.

As a couple, Eikner and Silva prioritize small gestures: five-minute overlaps between classes, doing errands for each other, sleeping over. He makes her Eggos with peanut butter for breakfast; she replaces the jar when it’s finished. They may have busy schedules, but there was one sign Eikner saw from the very beginning that they were meant to be.

“I had done an art history project on ‘The Print Collector’ by Daumier, and it’s such a niche painting…it’s in a hidden corner of the Art Institute,” Eikner remembered. “And then I saw he had chosen it to be his iPad wallpaper, and I was like, ‘this is crazy. He’s my soulmate.’”

Ingrid Smith and Henry Schacht

Like many couples, Medill second-year Ingrid Smith and Weinberg second-year Henry Schacht were introduced to each other during Wildcat Welcome—for them, at the East Fairchild and South Mid Quads beach social. “He showed up, and I thought he was really cute, and we just started talking,” recalled Smith. 

However, their connection truly began when Smith walked into her “Sex After Shakespeare” discussion section and sat next to him. “We were in a friend group for a while, got Plex stir fry every week…but really, I was largely interested in him,” she remembers.

The two finally ended up on a “solo mission” (Smith’s words) to Habibi Inn. After weeks of talking and hanging out, with Smith agonizing over what was going on, they eventually both clued into each other’s feelings—but the timing was nerve-wracking, particularly for Schacht. “I had been wanting to officially ask for a couple weeks before, but it was very much the lead-up to Valentine’s Day, and that seemed too kitschy,” he said. Finally, one night at Taco Bell, Smith asked what they were. From there, the two made it official.

Together for a year now, Smith and Schacht always find time to talk or see each other, even when they are busy with their respective commitments or workloads. Their dedication manifests itself in small periods of time: finding five minutes to say hi at the library or constantly texting inside jokes. “They make no sense, but they’re special to us because they’re ours,” said Smith.

Over the summer, Schacht visited Smith in Austin, where they explored Barton Springs, saw a musical and enjoyed the skyline. “I’ve never been able to talk to anyone like her from the beginning…that’s how I knew, and know, she’s my person,” Schacht said, smiling. To bring everything full circle, Smith and Schacht took another class—“Pirates, Guns, and Empires”— with Scott Sowerby, their “Sex After Shakespeare” professor, last spring.

“It’s truly a very interesting experience to be sitting next to your crush, and have to sit through a lecture through sodomy and random 1600s sex language,” Smith said. “I think a relationship in ‘Sex after Shakespeare’ is built to last.”

Moises Alvarez Garza and Rachel Yoon 

The first time Medill third-year Rachel Yoon interacted with McCormick third-year Moises Alvarez Garza was during their sophomore year, when she arrived at a get-together he was hosting in his dorm at Chapin. She’d been invited by a mutual friend.

“She said my name when she walked in, and I was like, ‘How do you know my name?’” laughs Garza. “And she was like, ‘It’s on your door.’”

Despite a memorable introduction, the interaction didn’t immediately lead anywhere. The pair didn’t converse much for a month after the party, though Yoon had already been spending time in Chapin since her first year because of a mutual friend the two shared. It wasn’t until another Chapin get-together Yoon was invited to, followed by a house party, that they came into contact again. They ended up in the Chapin lounge at the end of the night, talking over Fran’s. Garza gave her his jacket and walked her back to her dorm.

“I loved that he was very attentive,” said Yoon. “He would talk to people who weren’t in conversation with anyone.”

Although it was apparent their feelings for each other were mutual that night, they still didn’t get together immediately. “The thing is, we didn’t have any classes together, and I couldn’t find her on Instagram,” Garza said. A week went by with no contact, until they met for a third time at another function, invited by the same mutual friend.

“She told me, ‘You’re so confusing,’ because she was mad I didn’t reach out,” Garza said. “But I was trying, I really was.” Yoon’s Instagram username was not her real name, making it difficult for Garza to find her.

After an honest conversation and spending more time with one another, Garza and Yoon went on a date to the restaurant Koco Table, and then a walk, where he asked her to be his girlfriend—the culmination of a relationship that had been building over “weekly installments.” 

While both have busy schedules, with Yoon’s being especially packed during the week, they’ve learned to be strategic with their time. They share each other’s schedules on Apple Calendar, finding where their time feels “most pliable,” as Garza puts it, and plan real dates on the weekends when they can. 

Some of their favorite memories reflect that intentionality. For Garza, it was flying to Madrid to meet Yoon while she was studying abroad in Morocco last quarter—wandering around the banks of a river, eating, looking at pretty things. For Yoon, it was planning a free day trip to Shedd Aquarium—an outing that took coordination, but was made all the more special.

Now dating for a little over a year, both credit their mutual friend, Communication third-year Maya Palacios, for bringing them together. Garza said, “We’re indebted to her forever.”

Editor’s note: Yoon previously contributed to North by Northwestern.