Meet our first Campus Cutie couple, The Sams!
Full Names: Samantha Becker, Samuel James Berenato
Majors: Art History and Journalism (Becker), Secondary Education and Social and Behavioral Sciences (Berenato)
Hometowns: Woodbury, NJ (Becker) ,Wenonah, NJ (Berenato) (They’ve lived 5 minutes apart their whole life and never met until they got to SHU!)
Together since: Dec 17. Dating since New Year’s Eve 2014-2015
Have in common: They love alternative music, going to the beach and exploring New York City together!
HC: How did you guys meet?
Becker: It was the second night of college and I was going out and my roommate brought us into his room and we were all introducing ourselves and I said, “Hi I’m Sam I’m from Woodbury New Jersey” and he said “Oh you’re from Woodbury? I’m from Wenonah!” And I remembered that one of the names on the door was Sam. But this is where it gets confusing, one of my good guy friends from home has actually mentioned Samuel before because they’re on the same swim team and he told me, “There’s a kid on my swim team named Sam Berenato who’s going to Seton Hall” and I just said “Okay, whatever, I’ll probably never meet him!” so when I was talking to him that night I said “Oh my gosh are you Sam Berenato?” and he said “Yeah, how did you know that?” so then we talked about our mutual friend and we just started chatting and we hung out a lot that night. After that we basically hung out all the time and became really good friends. It’s kind of an awkward story of how we met (laughs). But eventually we were together but we weren’t actually dating.
Berenato: I would consider us together but she always said that we weren’t together until I officially asked her out. Which I thought was kind of stupid because we were practically dating but she said that I needed to ask her out so that we could be official. And I asked her out on New Year’s Eve.
HC: You guys are polar opposites, how do you make it work?
Berenato: I wouldn’t say that we’re opposites but she has a loud personality. She’s really weird in a good way and I just embrace it. It’s something that I find attractive about her because she’s always spontaneous.
HC: What’s the glue in your guy’s relationship?
Berenato: We have the same sense of humor.
Becker: We are ourselves around each other and I don’t have to pretend to be anybody else.
HC: What’s your partner’s best quality?
Berenato: I would say that she’s really weird. But in a good way! There’s got to be a better way to say it (laughs). I like how loud and rambunctious she is. She always finds a new way to make me laugh and always surprises me with something new.
Becker: Um
Berenato: Oh that’s good, “eh, not too much” (laughing)
Becker: No! It’s just hard to put it into words! It’s not that I can’t think of anything I just want to make sure I choose the best one. I guess how selfless he is and how he’s always putting me first. That sounds really selfish but (laughs) I’ve never found someone who finds my qualities not annoying. I like how we’ve grown together and how he’s become more himself around me. We’ve grown together.
HC: Do you like that you guys are at the same school and see each other every day?
Both: Yes!
Berenato: We love constantly seeing each other. We have friends, like my roommate whose girlfriend doesn’t go here, and we just know that we couldn’t do it at all.
Becker: It taught us to appreciate our situation and what we have. But a relationship is still hard even if you see each other every second of every day. It just made us appreciate the fact that we don’t have to be so far away.
Berenato: It’s like, we still have these petty problems but at least we’re together and not miles away from each other. But one thing bad about going to the same college together and seeing each other literally every day is that when we go we get really bad separation anxiety.
HC: Tell me about your new puppy:
Becker: We went to Myrtle Beach for spring break because I have a friend that goes to Coastal Carolina and one day we were at the beach, and there was a girl there with a little puppy underneath the chair and I just got so excited.
Berenato: If she sees a dog on the street she like hyperventilates and she basically gets more excited when she sees dogs than when she sees me.
Becker: (laughing) That is not true babe! But I fell in love with the puppy and I was basically with her the entire time. And the lady told us that she was giving the puppy away and we just knew we had to have it.
Berenato: Her name is Penny and we think that she’s a Lab and German Shepard mix.
HC: Do you guys have any cute nicknames for each other?
Becker: I was in his phone as “Rock” for a while. And over winter break I was working at the movie theater so whenever I got off and went to go hangout with him, he said I smelt like chicken fingers so for a while I was in his phone as “My Chicken Finger.” Before we were dating we used to call each other “Sunshine” and “Moonlight.” Those were like the OG nicknames. At first I started calling him “Sunshine” as a joke like the whole “good morning sunshine” and the one night I said “goodnight sunshine” and he said, “goodnight…moonlight” (laughing) and it just kind of stuck!
HC: Is weird that you guys have the same name?
Becker: Yeah it’s weird (laughs). In the beginning of the year people used to call us Girl Sam and Guy Sam because we were always together. And some people still call us that.
Berenato: We don’t call each other “Sam” because that’s weird, so she calls me “Samuel” and I call her “Samantha” but it’s special because it’s not like anyone else call’s her that.