Trent Love Stories

We met at the Pig's Ear in November of our third year at Trent. We recognized each other, being in the same branding class, studying business administration. Since then, we’ve travelled the world across North and South America, Europe and Asia, built our careers together, living downtown Toronto for nine years, got married during the COVID pandemic, purchased our dream home closer to family in the countryside of Clarington, welcomed our son in 2024 and have twin girls expected to arrive any day! If you were to ask me back in 2013 the next day after I met Holly in the classic Peterborough dive bar if I could ever imagine us doing everything that we’ve done with our lives and our accomplishments, I would have said “absolutely”. I knew she was the one the moment I met her.

Matthew Patterson '10

(Gzowski College)

All from Lady Eaton College, I was so fortunate to meet my best friends in my first year. We went on to become roommates for the rest of our degrees. They were my bridesmaids (missing one due to covid) and now are the best aunties to my two babies! After more than 10 years of friendship and seeing each other through so many life stages, I know I’ve got some lifers. We often talk about Trent and wish we could go back in time to just have one more day all living together. Thanks Trent!

Alana Wahlstrom ’14

(Lady Eaton College)

I started at Trent in September 2016, joining with some friends who were already at the University. My best friend convinced me to join a first-year German class with him, to which I obliged. This class happened to be my very first class of the semester, so I was pretty stoked to have a friend to attend with. Little did I know, it would also be the day that I met my now husband! First class of the semester of my first year, I walk into my German class and sit across from a stranger at a long table along with the other 30 students. Tristan stood out to me not for the reasons you may typically think, but because he was absolutely demolishing a take out container of General Tao chicken from the Thai Express on campus. My immediate thought was "that's insane first day of school behaviour." Our first practice in class was saying "Hi, my name is..." to the classmate across from us. So our first words to each other ended up being German, which is now funny to look back on considering the last 10 years of our lives! It wasn't until a few weeks later that he asked me for help to study before the first test. Our test was at 9:00 a.m., so what did we do? We met at the Otonabee cafeteria at 7:00 a.m., I pulled out the textbook to begin to help him study, and he says "oh I don't need help studying, I speak German at home, I just needed an excuse to get you on a date with me" - which would have been super cute if I didn't wake up at 5:00 a.m. for this. We then proceeded to spend our ENTIRE day together, we could not leave each others side! Truthfully, it stayed that way for the rest of the year, we were (and still are) inseparable. Over the past 10 years, we've been integrated into our each others families seamlessly, Tristan's Oma and Opa are like my own! They teach me German, cook us traditional meals, and it all circles back to that first day of class where we had to lazily introduce ourselves in broken German. Funny how the world works! After university, living over 100 km away from each other for half a decade with our families and travelling to see each other every weekend, we bought our home in Cambridge, got married on September 21, 2024 (our 8 year anniversary) and now have two kittens that are our babies! We'll be celebrating 10 years this September, we still can't believe how fast time as flown by. It felt like yesterday that we were sitting in Whistle Stop sharing a poutine!

Photo credit: Ben Carmichael

Jackie Hannah ’16

(Gzowski College)

Jeff and I met on my very first day at Trent University. I arrived at C-House, and Jeff, was one of the Frosh week leaders. Friendship grew, but love didn't strike until my third year, his fourth, when we both became Frosh leaders for Otonabee together. That was back in the fall of 2003. We fell in love while at Trent and began our travelling adventures together the fall after my graduation where we left for Australia. Together, we spent two years in Australia completing our Masters degrees and got engaged. In August of 2008 after returning to Canada, we said "I do", and have been happily married ever since. I'm so thankful I landed in C-House with Jeff and found my life partner. Happily married now for 17 years, together for 22. We have two wonderful children, Mila (10) and Tobin (6) and continue our travels with them by our sides. Thanks to Trent University for helping us find our love story!

Michelle Robinson ’01

(Otonabee College)

I met my husband on the very first day of move in. We both lived in Lady Eaton College and decided to participate in that day’s capture the flag. On opposing teams my husband, James, decided to taunt me that purple section was leading and red section needed to step up. I ran to grab the flag when I thought he was distracted and he tackled me to the ground. This led to us seeing each other in the cafeteria the following day and introducing ourselves - which led to a romantic first date of James teaching me to do my own laundry and me providing a hearty microwaved rice for lunch. We have been practically inseparable since then…and now 11 years later we are married and have two kids of our own whom we hope will become Trent alumni for a third generation (PopPop is an alumni too)!

Ashley McLeod ’15

(Lady Eaton College)

Our love story started in fall of 2015 - I was in third year and Jess was in second year. We had both joined the LEC Orientation team out of love for our college community. The Orientation team was incredibly tight-knit and our friendship/connection was immediate. We quickly bonded over our love for music and spent many hours in Bata library swapping songs and artists, or making USB Drive mix tapes for each other. During the school year we spent so much time together: writing papers in the JCR, singing Sugar Ray at Pig’s Ear ‘Karaoinke’, attending college events and dinners. We (finally) started dating in the April of that school year, and the first years of our relationship were spent at Trent. We played intramural Ultimate Frisbee and Water Polo, I spent a year working at The Ceilie, while Jess worked in the LEC college office. We were also both Co-Chairs of LEC’s Orientation Week in our consecutive fourth years. Fast forward to today - we will have been together 10 years this April, and are recently engaged! We still reminisce so fondly about our time at Trent and are so thankful not only to have met, but to have shared memories of so many special, formative, and specific experiences (the kind you only get at a place like Trent).

Scott MacDonald '13

(Lady Eaton College)

My boyfriend and I met at orientation. We were doing a group icebreaker and caught each other’s eye, we introduced ourselves and went on our way. Later that day, we found each other again and played octopus (he kept trying to tag me he’s so obvious) and after, I tried so hard to get his number. That night he texted me, we went on a date the day after, and have been together ever since. 

Hailey Peters ’24

Trent Durham GTA

I met my now husband at Trent. I was studying nursing, while he was studying Bio/Chem. We met at the Trent University Judo Club. We spared one night, and I threw him. We joke that he fell head over heels for me, because he actually did. Seven years later, we are married and have a daughter.

Photo credit: Jessie Biedka Photography

Sarah Miller '15

(Otonabee College)

My husband John Stardom '94 (BSc) was one of my Introweek leaders at Champlain College. On my very first day at Trent in September 1995, he met my whole family (including my aunt Melody Morrison '65 when he helped move my stuff into my residence room. We both lived in residence at Champlain and became close friends that fall, with nights at the Ceilie where he worked, and lots of shared meals in the Great Hall. In January 1996, we decided to become more than friends and the rest is history. A big, beautiful life together - wonderful time at Trent, then graduate school at Simon Fraser University (him) and Queen's University (me), getting married in 2001, starting rewarding careers as federal public servants, becoming parents to three beautiful boys who are teenagers now, and lots of travelling. In January 2026, we celebrated 30 years together and we will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary this May. We are proud Trent alumni and so thankful for the place that brought us together and started it all.

Holly Stardom ’95

(Champlain College)

We met my very first day of university back in 1991. I was moving into Champlain and Jamie was an Intro Week Leader helping students move into their rooms. One of the other leaders who was helping me get settled introduced us, because we were going to be living in the same staircase (C/D one floor apart) and the rest - as they say - is history. We remember our first kiss outside the courtyard by one of the stone walls, holding hands walking across the bridge (when Jamie wasn’t late running to get to his classes!), meals together in the Great Hall, trayboganning down the drumlin, playing every intramural possible, dancing at the Commoner (where Jamie DJ’d), working at the Ceilie together, several Harvest, Bon Temps and Head of the Trent weekends, and more! Now, nearly 35 years later here we are with three incredible children looking forward to celebrating our 25th anniversary this summer. And our Trent connection remains strong; our middle child is now a third-year Trent student, and our youngest bears the middle name Ceilie. Our years at Trent remain some of our most cherished memories, we are still close friends with several wonderful humans we met back then and we are so grateful that it served as the starting point for our life together.

Beatrice Bauer Draves ’91

(Champlain College)

We fell deeply in love working together in the library. We married after graduation and lived another 51 crazy, busy hilarious years doing what we loved… and enjoying the outdoors so very much. For me, he was the guy in the Windsong commercial who could do anything he put his mind to. He was also the best sailing crew I had ever experienced. For him, I was the dark-haired beauty who loved the lake, sailing, skiing, and canoeing. He met me at my cottage Easter weekend when I was 15. I didn’t remember him. After we got together, nothing could separate us. We picked up Graduate degrees at the University of Waterloo… but nothing could ever compare to being in the very first 99 students attending Trent University in its first year. It’s 62 years since we entered Trent…we have grandchildren and a great grandchild…our first child is a grandmother… and the lives we started at Trent have now a momentum all their own. Don succumbed to cancer 7 years ago…but the love we engaged in at Trent all those years ago continues to flow like a river to the sea.

Martha Lush ’64

(Traill College)

I met Virginia in 2016 when we happened to sit beside each other in a Philosophy of Love and Desire class. She always asked to read my copy of the syllabus (which she now tells me was an excuse to talk to me more). I'm so happy we both decided to take that class. Fast forward to 10 years later - we are married!

Rosey Lapointe ’16

Trent Durham GTA

I met my fiancé Chris Mills during orientation week. We were both in the Traill orientation week team. I stayed at Wallis Hall while Chris was an off campus student. After a couple of chats, he invited me in a date that weekend and we never stopped seeing each other. We dated throughout university and got engaged a year and a half after graduation. We are getting married this summer and I can’t wait to spend the rest of our lives together. Thank you Traill College for introducing me to my husband.

Petra Varadi ’17

(Traill College)

My husband, Ryan Barrett, and I met at Lady Eaton College. We were really good friends to begin with, but I had a boyfriend at the time. We started dating second year of university. We have now been married 18 years with two amazing kids.

Jodi Barrett ’98

(Lady Eaton College)

I met my husband in my first year at the Trent International Students' Association barbeque, started dating in our second year and got married three years after graduating! We have so many amazing memories at Trent and around Peterborough, will never forget how it all began.

Sara Estefania Toro ’09

(Otonabee College)

We met at Don Training 2014 as we were both Dons in LEC that year. Our first unofficial dates included late night walks and stargazing from the Drumlin. Eleven years later, after completing three Trent degrees together and Patricia starting her career at Trent, we got married in 2025 with many Trent friends in attendance.

Photo credit: Sarah Hiltz Photography

Patricia Smith '12

(Lady Eaton College)

We met on the fencing team when Evan started at Trent in 2011. We started dating in 2014, were married in 2019 and have been happily coaching the Trent team together. We added two more little McDonnell's to the coaching staff.

Courtney McDonnell ’08

(Champlain College)