Though Lin-Manuel Miranda was considered one of the coolest kids at his high school, he was also admittedly shy when it came to someone he liked. At the time, in 1998, Miranda was a senior, about to graduate, and Nadal was a sophomore, described as "mathematical, opinionated, a great dancer, and independent." To Miranda, Vanessa Nadal was someone he couldn't even speak to, telling the Times in 2010, "She was gorgeous and I'm famously bad at talking to women I find attractive. I have a total lack of game."
As a result, the two never connected, not until seven years later that is. In 2005, Miranda, who graduated from Wesleyan University in 2002, came upon Nadal's profile on Facebook and noticed that among her interests were hip-hop and salsa — two major components of his work with the improv troupe Freestyle Love Supreme and his future award-winning musical In the Heights (via SpeakEasy).
At last, Miranda would have his opening, and as the story goes, he took it, inviting Nadal to one of his group's next hip-hop performances (via The Oprah Magazine). To his surprise, she attended; he got her number (getting a friend to ask for him, of course); and some seven years after walking the same high-school halls, the two Hunter alums were finally in each other's lives.
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