Editor’s Note: This is the second in a five part series about interracial couples to celebrate international week. 

Sometimes you come across couples that seem like best friends. Seniors Nate Lee and Kayla Camburn are exactly that. You’ve probably seen them laughing and talking during lunch, hanging out in the hallways, or just walking to classes together. They’ve been together for six months, and both agree that it has been a blast.

Lee and Camburn first met sophomore year when they were both on the same team for Relay For Life, which still holds true today.

Lee comes from a traditional Chinese family. They occasionally celebrate Chinese holidays, such as Chinese New Year, and eat Chinese food.

“My parents don’t have a problem with [the cultural differences] because they aren’t as strict about traditional Chinese ideals,” Lee said.

According to Lee, he can eat basically anything with rice. Anything.  Camburn’s ancestors come from Hungary and Germany, but her family doesn’t engage in many traditional Hungarian and German events and holidays. However, both Lee and Camburn do celebrate Chinese New Years together, as well as Christmas.

“I taught her how to speak a bit of Chinese, and I gave her a red envelope [of money] for Chinese New Years,” Lee said.

Both Lee and Camburn agree that they have never had any issues with their relationship due to their cultural differences; rather, they find they that their differences allow for them to learn new things about each other. Unlike some couples that just sit around and do nothing, Lee and Camburn find that they enjoy going on adventures together. The idea of not doing anything at all just bores them.

“Together we enjoy going on adventures as cheesy as that sounds,” Lee said, “We don’t like sitting at home and would prefer to go out and say bowl or go somewhere nice to eat. We’ll go out with friends; basically anything we can that doesn’t involve being couch potatoes.”

Camburn agrees with Lee.

“We love experiencing new things together,” Camburn said.

Lee and Camburn depict what it means to be best friends in a relationship, and according to close friend and senior Sebastian Chirayil, they have always been friends, and when they became a couple, they just hung out more than usual. Chirayil finds that being from two different cultures hasn’t changed anything about their relationship.

“Being an interracial couple hasn’t really changed anything though because they still do the same things as anyone else, like hold hands, kiss, walk with each other to classes and meet at each others lockers after school. I think its cool that he’s Asian and she’s white because they learn a lot more about each other than normal couple,” Chirayil said.