Alvin and I met at the end of my freshman year in college, the end of his junior year. He was to be my Resident Director the following year... I was going to be a first-year Resident Advisor. As soon as we got on campus the following year, sparks began to fly. But we both held back.

We spent practically every minute together, becoming close friends. We finally talked about our feelings for each other one night, when he told me that as my supervisor, he felt it would be a bad idea to start a relationship. He also said that because he was graduating and moving away in 10 months, he didn't want to start a relationship. However, he also admitted that he had strong feelings for me. On top of all that, he is black, and I am not. I am Arabic-American.

I also told him my feelings -- that I was very attracted to him, and valued his presence in my life. We were both scared to death, as we had both just come out of very bad relationships. Less than a month later, we went to our supervisors and told them we had fallen in love.

Our staff and friends were very supportive of us. No one even mentioned the racial differences, or the fact that he would be leaving me behind in less than a year

Because we both attended college out of state, the families didn't meet the significant other or each other for many months. When the meetings finally took place, it was a big event. I was so nervous that his mother and sister would hate me! That turned out not to be the case, and his entire family loves me very much. My family was also really excited to meet Alvin. It was the first time they had seen me really happy with some one. They fell as in love with him as I am.

Then May rolled around... time for him to graduate. I still had two years left of college, but he was moving back home, far away from me. We began to have difficulties then, as we got more serious but were so far apart.

Another big obstacle became our races -- when we did see each other, it was in our home towns. None of our friends from college were around, and we were faced for the first time with people who did not approve of our interracial relationship. This became most obvious in public places, such as malls, parks, movie theaters, and concerts. No one was harmful to us, but the glares, looks, and snide comments became difficult for us to deal with.

Another problem we had to deal with was religion. He is devoted to his faith, whereas I am not of a particular religion. My father is Muslim, my mother is nothing -- they told me to decide for myself. So I have grown up not really thinking about a religion. However, Alvin's religion is very important to him, and it was important to him that I understand and support that. So I attended church with him, and have begun to learn about all different religions so that I can better understand his faith.

He had moved back home by this point, which was very difficult for both of us. His mother is disabled, and his moving back home enabled his father to basically step out of the picture, leaving Alvin to take care of himself and his mother, as well as start grad school and maintain our relationship. This caused very serious stress for him AND our relationship.

Then I came back to school to begin my junior year. It was difficult to find weekends that were free for both of us, and it was even harder to make sure the time we did have together was as relaxing, stress-free, and about US as possible. However, we talked about the fact that our relationship is very important to both of us, and we came up with ways to make it work. We worked out weekend times to spend together, made phone calls more frequent and a priority, began switching where and how we saw each other, and basically tried to be more understanding of each other.

Since that time, he has gotten his first real job and is looking for his own place to live. I am in my last year of college and plan to move to his city when I graduate. We see each other almost every other weekend and talk several times a week. Our time together is limited but special. As much as we are in love, we are also best friends and each others' support system. Our two-year anniversary is in 3 weeks, and neither of us has ever felt this happy or in love.