We actually met in middle school at Thoreau Middle School. We were in the same orchestra class in eighth grade (shout-out to Ms. Yacovisi for inspiring excellence in music), and we were distant acquaintances, though our friend groups started to merge around then. In freshman year of high school the group solidified and I was one of the three boys and she was one of the three girls. It started as a recognition of mutual compatibility, first as friends. 

We started talking and we couldn’t stop. In early spring of senior year we both caught feelings, and by end of the year we went to prom together. We talked and texted basically every day at James Madison High School, and then when we moved on to college, we kept it up at UVA. For a year or two during COVID we were moving around the DMV area and then ultimately returned to Charlottesville where we both now work at a Clean (Solar, Wind, Etc.) Energy company. Last year we got engaged, and next year (our 10-year anniversary) we’ll be married, but we both figure we’ve been married since high school anyway. We used to play pretend husband and wife as a joke back when we were friends—I called her the Wife of Wives—but soon it’ll be the real deal. Once we connected in high school we’ve stuck together like glue. Here’s to another ten years!