Picture this: you are walking across Andrus Field and all of a sudden you spot an iconic duo. Who could it be other than Chris Hadley ’24 and Arabella Katz ’24, strutting down the sidewalk, headed to their next Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (FGSS) class together? The two have been dating since their first year of college and now live together on Court Street with their other close friends. Both are interested in the intersection of literature and gender—with Katz triple-majoring in English, African American Studies (AFAM), and FGSS and Hadley double-majoring in English and FGSS—and hope to pursue graduate degrees after Wesleyan. This Valentine’s Day, The Argus had the chance to sit down with the duo to talk all things academic, housing, and abroad as a couple at Wesleyan. 

The Argus: What’s the story of how you met?

Arabella Katz: It’s a very Wesleyan story. We both lived in [Butterfield] A freshman year. It was a true Butts love story. It was during COVID so we lived across the hall from each other, but we didn’t meet in person for the first two weeks of school. He literally lived 10 feet away from my door.

Chris Hadley: I was in 3333 and she was in 3334.

AK: It was very close proximity. We were friends for about a year before we were together romantically.

CH: I think that we officially met when I said I like your shoes. They were Doc Marten sandals.

AK: But then we did become really, really close friends. Like best friends. 

A: Then how did it turn into your relationship?

CH: I had a huge crush on Arabella, which was unbearable for a little while. By the end of the year, things started to get weird. We could tell something was going on. But I guess I was never gonna say anything. Then one day Arabella said, “Are you ever going to tell me you’re in love with me?” And I was like, “Well, you got me.” It was a lot more romantic than that, though. I had to be pushed. But I had a crush on Arabella when I met her.

AK: I think I developed feelings through being friends. I’m not really a love-at-first-sight kind of person. Even just crushes. I kind of need to get to know the person. Chris was just somebody that made me really, really comfortable and feel very happy. We were already spending all of our time together, and then we were just spending all of our time together after that. 

A: What are you each involved in on campus? 

AK: I do a bunch of things. I’m involved in the majors committee for the FGSS Department. I also nude model for “Drawing I” (ARST131). I’m a [teaching apprentice] for an African American literature class with [Assistant Professor of African American Studies] Garry Bertholf, who is my thesis advisor. I’m writing a thesis in AFAM and FGSS on Black feminist poetics, so I’m super excited about that. 

CH: I work at Red & Black [Café], so people might know my face from there. I was also a [Center for the Humanities] Fellow, which is super cool. I think Yohely was [WesCeleb] last week and we did that together and that was awesome.

AK: Talk about your thesis!

CH: Oh, I’m writing a thesis too. It’s in FGSS. It’s on modern trans literature but in fun and interesting forms. So, like, dystopian novellas and poetry. I’m really wrapped up in that, but so is every thesis student.

A: It seems like you guys are involved with similar academic fields, how does that work for you?

AK: We’ve been in a lot of classes together. So we definitely had to get comfortable with that early on because I’m a Capricorn so I tend to be a little bit competitive. People who know me know that I’m very kind of serious in the classroom. So it’s been a balance. I feel like we don’t we don’t really compare each other. 

CH: We don’t compare. But we do talk about class. I think it’s also because Arabella and I are both just independently very passionate about similar things, and that’s part of the reason that when we met in freshman year, we had so much in common. And I actually love being in class with her, I think it’s really fun. 

AK: I like seeing you in your element. I don’t know if you feel the same way, but I feel like when you make a good point, and then I have something to add on, those are always silly, fun moments. 

CH: I also just think she’s very smart and really cool.

AK: I also think that you’re very, very, very smart. And you’re very passionate about everything that you do, which just spills over into the room.

CH: I feel like Lia is on a date with us.

AK: I feel like we are in couple’s therapy.

A: I know you guys live together, how has it been sharing senior housing?

CH:  It’s really nice. We lived together when we went abroad. 

AK: At the University of Edinburgh. 

CH: And before that, we were literally trekking back and forth between each other’s dorms. I don’t know. That sucked. 

AK: It sucked. And it was so not fun. 

CH: It’s, at this point, a logistical thing. I love living with you. But also, it would suck so bad if I had to spend all my time schlepping. because we’re gonna spend a lot of time together. 

AK: Also it’s nice that we have our own space. We have our own rooms. We’ve never been roommates, except for abroad. When we were abroad, we lived together in a one-bedroom apartment, which was definitely different than it is now. Here we have our own rooms and our own spaces, and we do, like travel back and forth between our rooms, which is very funny. But it’s been good. I feel like we get along really well. We also have a lot of the same friends which also makes it easy. Our best friends are each other’s best friends because we made friends together because we’ve been friends for so long. A lot of the friends that we have now, we made some of them when we were dating.

CH: They still individually love us.

A: What was your abroad experience like?

AK: It was really great. We loved it. It was really a nice break from academics. School was not on my mind as much there, which was really nice. We made a lot of amazing memories together. We traveled all over the place, which was really cool. And I don’t think I could have done that by myself. So it was really nice to have Chris there with me.

CH: It was so freeing and so lovely and amazing. It felt like this weird little slice of real life. We were renting an apartment. We would take buses and go to random places. It was also a real city. So there’s a farmers market on Sunday.

AK: We had our little routine. The coffee shop we’d to go to, the pub we’d to go to, and the Tesco that we would go to. So it was definitely weird returning to Wes after that, especially since we lived in Fauver in the basement with random people. 

CH: Who ended up being the greatest people ever. 

AK: Yeah. We love them. Shout out to Ellie Flynn [’24], Ellie Rosen [’24], and Natalie Gross [’24]. And it was so weird, going from living in this gorgeous place together, alone together, to living in our apartment with three people we didn’t know. But it worked out really well. 

CH: But I would still die for those people. I love them.

A:  On that note, what’s it like being a couple at Wesleyan?

CH: I mean, I think it’s easy, but I think it’s easy to be a couple. I don’t know. I think that I’m just happy.

AK: I think my freshman year I really tried very hard to not get into a relationship because I have friends that did and I just wanted to be in this new place and experience things and meet people. And very quickly I realized that actually I just wanted to spend all my time with Chris. Which is fine, and I had to kind of learn that that was okay. And that I shouldn’t force myself to, you know, date people or hook up with people that I don’t want to pursue. So, I feel like it’s easy, but that’s because we’re best friends and we’re also together. Also, being a queer couple at Wesleyan, it’s definitely a nice space to be around other queer people. I don’t know how it would be if we were living in some other place. I’m not sure.

CH: Hooking up is weird for me, I don’t like it. I’m very much a person who—and this is proven by the fact that we didn’t even really talk about our feelings for each other for a year—I like to get comfortable and then explore something.

AK: It’s the gayest thing ever. I feel like, and maybe this is why we were chosen for this. People will just see us around, and think oh, there’s Chris and Arabella again, always together. We very much operate in a unit. Which is really nice for me.

CH: And we are our own people.

AK: We also have our own interests and our own friends. 

A: What are you thinking post-graduation? 

CH: I’ve applied for a few [Master of Social Work] programs, mostly in New York, to get licensed [as a therapist]. Specifically, I want to work in gender-affirming care. That’s where I’m headed, I think, which is scary because I don’t think that’s where Arabella is headed.

AK: I’m pursuing my PhD in either English or African American Studies/Gender Studies. I’ve applied to some programs and interviewed with a few places, so we’ll see how it goes. I don’t know yet whether I’m in or not. I’m just waiting to hear back. But it seems like it’s gonna work out. It’ll be in the tri-state area, at least, so we will figure it out.

CH: Or I’ll burn out and I won’t go to grad school and I’ll do something else that I haven’t even thought of. 

AK: We’re very excited to adopt a cat together. 

A: Do you have anything else to add?

CH: I’m a little anxious about this. But it’s so iconic I have to get over it. 

AK: We have to get over ourselves. Even if it’s just to have this physical artifact of where we are at this time in our lives, that would be perfect. 

 

Lia Franklin can be reached at lfranklin@wesleyan.edu.