Andrew Krietz and Josh Sidorowicz only met once before they worked together at The State News in fall 2010.
“We met freshman year in sort of a met one night and then never saw each other again type of thing,” Josh said. “It wasn’t until the following year, our sophomore year, that I came to work at The State News, and Andrew had already been working there, and we finally learned each other’s names.”
Andrew was starting his third semester at The State News and Josh joined as an intern.
“I think my initial reaction was, ‘Oh my god it’s you,’” Andrew said.
But, the awkwardness was “fleeting” because they quickly became friends, Josh said.
After a year, Josh left The State News, but he still hung around the newsroom.
“State News was definitely the meeting point,” Josh said. “It was the reason we kept coming together. He would be working there, I would stop by in between classes, that sort of central point on Grand River where we would always come back to reconnect, even after I stopped working there.”
They started going on coffee dates once or twice a week that turned into an everyday occurance, Andrew said.
“We weren’t dating but we might as well have been dating,” Andrew said. “Even though he was gone, we still went to the same parties, The State News parties, we still hung out but all the while like, ‘hey, you’re around, let’s go to Starbucks.’”
All the time spent together turned into a relationship, and they started dating in June 2013, a month after they graduated, Josh said.
Josh had a full-time job in Lansing and Andrew had an internship in Grand Rapids, but they still saw each other often.
“Every weekend it would be like, ‘hey, what are you doing?’ ‘Nothing.’ So he would drive to Grand Rapids or I would drive to Lansing,” Andrew said. “And then we would keep it up every weekend.”
After a year, Josh said he took a job in Grand Rapids to be closer to Andrew. They spent three years there before they moved to Tampa, Florida.
They work at the same news organization in Tampa now.
“We’ve been living together and moving around for the past couple years now, cross country,” Andrew said. “We didn’t even realize it at the time, but we just go with it.”
They both credit The State News for bringing them together.
“I think why there are a lot of instances where relationships are forged in that newsroom, whether they are friendships or romantic relationships,” Andrew said. “It’s because it really becomes a place that you lean on each other and you experience the very high highs and the very low lows and all of the challenges that come in between that. It’s a place that, I think, inevitably fosters those kinds of connections with people.”
The support system of The State News is essential, Andrew said.
“What it comes down to, is it’s support system,” Andrew said. “People who are in a shared experience, learning at the same time, trying to navigate a very difficult industry and inevitably finding support and comfort and relationships in each other to get through that, what is often a difficult journey.”
There were ups-and-downs during their time at The State News, but the experience of working together brought them closer, Josh said.
“Sometimes the best things happen when you least anticipate it,” Josh said.
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