Devin Pearson & Morland Gamble

In May of 2025, Devin and Morland boarded a flight to San Jose, Costa Rica—Devin flying from LAX and Morland from DTW—not knowing that their lives would change forever. You see, Devin actually wanted to study Spanish in Spain but was denied and forced to go with his second option: Costa Rica. He initially didn't even accept his offer to go on the Costa Rica trip, but he was met with grace and was offered a spot to go. Despite his desire to be in Spain instead, he begrudgingly accepted so that he'd fulfill his language requirement needed to graduate from the University of Michigan. Morland, on the other hand, was eager to get away from Michigan and experience more of the world, never having left the country prior to the trip.

Within the first few days of class, they had definitely noticed each other, however, Devin didn't think she was interested and the last thing he wanted to come out of the experience was a relationship. Similarly, Morland's excitement at being on her first trip out of the country for 6 whole weeks kept her quite busy and contented, hardly leaving room for any romance abroad.

Morland first approached Devin by asking him and his classmate—who she overheard talking—about finding a gym nearby. She didn't want to lose all her progress from the previous school year! So they made a plan to find one together on the way back from an after-school excursion but they ended up being too busy talking and completely forgot to look that time. After that, they both understood that there was clearly some chemistry there yet, Devin didn't take it seriously until Morland admitted that one of her favorite numbers was 11 after Ian Kinsler (a former Detroit Tiger's player) during an in-class activity and was impressed by her “ball knowledge.” That paved the way for their first class trip to Jaco where Devin got borderline sun poisoning just so he could have a 1-on-1 conversation with Morland while she was reading on the beach. That then sparked grabbing a drink at the bar and watching the Yankees play the Mets. Once the game ended, Devin took her on a hunt for wild coconuts, strolling along the beach for a while and talking about everything under the sun—quite literally. The walk only worsened Devin's scorched skin so he went to buy aloe and take a nap while Morland went horseback riding on the beach with rest of her girl classmates. Once Morland returned to the hostel, everyone decided to hang out and play cards but there was no sign of Devin, who'd promised he'd hang out with Morland once she got back. Little did she know he was seriously dehydrated and sick from being in the sun all day. So, she took it as a sign that he just probably wasn't that into her and texted him that she was going to bed. Just then she looked up from her phone to see him walking down the hostel stairs, smiling at her. With a strong desire to see Morland and a little bit of grit, Devin overcame a fever, a pounding headache, and a searing pain that accompanied every crinkle of his skin.

They hit it off the rest of the night and Morland was quite confident that she was in fact wrong earlier and that it was the opposite of what she had thought, he really was into her.

The very next day, in the Uber home from the bus station, they found out Earth-shattering news that they were both Catholic which transformed their simple yet strong chemistry into something that had the potential to be forever.

Later that week, they went on their first date, and the rest is history…