Nate and Amber met during a summer research program at Virginia Tech in June of 2018, when Amber sat next to Nate at the orientation. The pair quickly became friends, and continued to see each other regularly that summer and in subsequent classes. As Nate finished his undergraduate degree and began graduate school (also at Virginia Tech), they both accepted that they would likely never see each other again, as Amber still had one year of undergrad remaining. However, the following year, Nate and Amber were both unexpectedly enrolled in the same dual-enrollment course with graduate and undergraduate students together. They quickly became closer than they were before, but collectively decided not to pursue a committed relationship because Amber was planning to leave Virginia shortly for her graduate degree, while Nate had committed to at least 4 more years at Virginia Tech. Despite this, even as they became separated by (exactly) 400 miles, the pair stayed in close contact and feelings grew stronger. Finally, Nate and Amber became an official couple in March of 2021. Three years of long distance was no match for the immeasurable love they had for each other, and they remained committed to one another until they were reunited at last, for good, in May of 2024. The couple had endured 27,000 hours apart and 30,000 miles of travel, and had amassed over 10,000 Snapchat messages, thousands of hours of Discord calls, and 181 games of Fortnite. A few months later, after discovering that they loved living together even more than they had hoped, Nate proposed to Amber at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in Brooklyn, NY in October of 2024. The couple have permanently commemorated the original fortunate event, participating in the same summer undergraduate research fellowship, by engraving "SURF 2018" on their wedding rings.