Frieda Streichan (10) and Kieran Buell (10) are both students here at Dos Pueblos. Streichan and Buell have been dating for a little over a year and half. They, unknowingly, went to the same preschool and elementary school, but only started hanging out more recently when Streichan moved into Buell’s neighborhood.

“I moved across the street from him, like, three years ago, four years ago or something,” Streichan said. “And we started hanging out a little bit because our parents … wanted to hang out with our neighbors. So we started to hang out. We found that we had similar interests.”

As they began hanging out more and more, Buell started liking Streichan and eventually confessed his feelings for her, marking the start of their relationship.

“Actually I remember the exact moment,” Streichan said. “I was in the park with his dad and our dogs and then he texts me. And first I think he’s joking and I’m like, ‘Oh my God. Are you joking?’ And I realize now that could have been taken in a rude way. Anyway, so I was just like, out in the park [and] I didn’t expect it, but he just texted me that he liked me. And then I called him and said I liked him back.”

As they started dating, Streichan and Buell found that communication, quality time together, and trust are very important to building such a strong connection and relationship.

“In the beginning, you need to build a strong foundation,” Streichan said. “So you need to trust each other, communicate, hang out as often as you can. And then when you’re farther away from each other for longer times, then you really have that foundation to build on and trust on and fall on.”

“This seems kind of intuitive, but just like, it’s not so much about doing a lot of crazy and cool things together,” Buell added. “It’s more the amount of time you spend together, it’s a lot more important.”

Quality time together quickly proved to be a very important backbone to Streichan and Buell’s relationship.

“The first time we ever really hung out, we did a movie night,” Streichan said. “And his parents were home. And we fell asleep on the couch. And I got angry phone calls from my dad at three in the morning saying I should come home.”

As a couple, Buell and Streichan love to do outdoorsy activities and being active makes up a big part of their bond and relationship as well. They often go rock climbing together or hang out at the beach.

“So, we’ve gone skiing a couple of times together,” Buell said. “We’ve done lots of hiking, biking, climbing … a lot of things that are active. We just go for walks. Sometimes she’ll run with me. ”

Being in high school and in a relationship, Streichan and Buell must consider and focus on the balance between their individual social lives and spending time with each other. Since they are in the same friend group, Streichan and Buell have found it important to spend time hanging out with each other apart from their friend group.

“I mean, a good example is what we do at lunch,” Streichan said. “[Our friend group] usually all eat together and then after we eat, we just go our separate ways or when we’re all hanging out with our big friend group, we might just kind of branch off for a little bit and do our own thing.”

Amidst high school and social pressures, Streichan and Buell have found that mutual trust and respect both builds and benefits their relationship immensely. They have agreed that it is important for both of them to trust each other and respect the other’s separate friends and social groups.

“I also think it’s important that like, kind of the respect, that other people can have their own friends,” Buell said. “And that, you know, to not try to be super protective because inevitably, they’re gonna have to interact with other people.”

“Yeah, that trusting,” Striechan added. “He can hang out with whoever he wants. I trust him. And he feels the same.”

Edited April 25 for copy edits.