A seemingly ordinary field trip her sophomore year of high school turned into something more meaningful for Erin Hanley.
Hanley, a senior P2 pharmacy major, and her boyfriend of seven years, PJ Turcotte, were in two sections of a class called World Culture, World Literature and had gone to see an exhibit on Claude Monet.
“Everyone who went to the class went on the field trip and he went on the field trip with all of us and actually at the time my best friend liked him so we were hanging out with him because me and my friend were with and his friends and that’s kind of when I got find out who he was,” Hanley said.
Hanley explained she had seen Turcotte, who graduated from Arcadia University near Philadelphia last year and is attending graduate school for his Masters in Public Health at Drexel University in Philadelphia, around her high school before the field trip but it wasn’t until after the trip that they started talking. She said they started dating in June of that year.
Hanley said she has a lot of trust in Turcotte and because he is more outgoing than she is, he makes her life more fun while she keeps him grounded.
“He and I are actually very opposite. I don’t party so I guess I’m not really this lifestyle where I would have gone out single and crazy to the house parties and stuff like that. But he is much more of a partier,” Hanley said. “I think I kind of ground him in his decisions so he kind of makes my life fun I kind of ground him.”
Hanley explains she and Turcotte are a good match for each other as she has trust in him, which she says is important in a long-distance relationship. She said they text each other throughout the day and call at night to stay in touch. She said the fact that she was the only one with a car caused minor trouble between them but they were able to work it out because of the importance of their relationship.
“It caused tension at times but the importance of our relationship was more important,” Hanley said.
Hanley’s favorite quality about Turcotte is that he is considerate and thoughtful toward her. She also enjoys the fact that he is a lot of fun to be around.
“He’s considerate of my feelings, the stress I go through; he’s always trying to find ways to make me happy, to take me to new things or do new things with me,” Hanley said. “I like the fun-loving side of him. That kind of gets me to get out and have fun because I think I’d be boring without him.”