Is it possible to find true love in high school? A high school sweetheart is described as when a couple meets throughout high school and sustains a relationship after high school along with getting married. Pace Academy possesses a few relationships that have continued after high school.
To begin, Karina Khouri Belinfante, Class of 1995, and Josh Belinfante, Class of 1995, met on the first day of their Sophomore year. Josh served as Karina’s welcome buddy to adjust to Pace, as she was a new student. The pair shared classes, such as English and science. Their relationship officially started at the end of their eleventh-grade year, and they continued dating throughout the rest of high school, college, and graduate school. “We have both changed since high school… Josh was the wilder one then,” notes Karina, reminiscing on favorite memories of pranks in the Upper School library in the former Bridges Hall. “He was fun-loving and willing to get kicked out of places for the sake of a good joke or laugh. Today, the Belinfantes have three children: Cole Belinfante ‘24, Ian Belinfante ‘27, and Liv Belinfante ‘33 all enrolled at Pace Academy.
The second pair, Jared Paul, Class of 1990, and Kelley Harris, Class of 2000, met in 2004 at a Fateful Design Industry event. At the moment, Kelley thought Jared was handsome,. distinguished and dapper. Jared says, “It sounds completely corny, but it was love at first sight!” In their Pace Academy career, they did not date because of their age difference, but later they dated for 11 years before saying I do. They recently celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary.
The final pair, Lara Goodrich Ezor, Class of 2006, and Zack Ezor, Class of 2006, saw each other for the first time in middle school. They became good friends and began dating in their sophomore year of high school. Despite moving across the country for college, the pair stayed together. They later married in 2011 and had their first son, Samuel, in 2020. Lara recalls her favorite story of Zack was from Spirit Week: “Zack worked so hard on the preparations one year that he crashed afterwards, took a super long nap, and slept through my birthday dinner. I’ve never let him live it down!”