The Goodfellows

This love story has been long in the making and the wedding planning has been even longer. Both of us grew up in very different settings, one was from a small hometown trying to figure his life past community college, while another immigrated to an entire new country and had to navigate a new culture. Although different, our passion for science was what brought us to the beautiful city of San Francisco. Sam and Miriam crossed paths during an outreach laboratory tour for high school kids. Sam was touring a group of kids with their mutual friend, Fred, when Miriam happened to be in the lab hanging out. We knew we were meant for each other when we bonded over our mutual love for giving Fred a hard time. From then on, it was hard to stay apart. From organization events, hang outs in the 8th floor of Hensil Hall, drag race watch parties and developmental bio study sessions in the Burrus lab, we became close friends who found any and every excuse to be together. Sam decided to ask her to be his date for a scholarship dinner, solidifying the first step of having a serious relationship. However, as most stories go, challenges weren't far behind since Sam was attending the University of New Mexico for graduate school while Miriam still had a year left of her Master's curriculum. Fortunately, through lots of effort, long phone calls, terrible puns told through text messages and efforts to visit each other, we made it work until we reunited in the land of Enchantment. Our lifestyle changed quite drastically, we went from hanging with friends every night in a lounge, while going clubbing and eating at Orphan Andy's at 2 am to becoming homeowners, enjoying early nights in on a couch. Since grad school wasn't busy enough, we also added two rambunctious balls of energy in the form of Pip and Poppy, our border collie babies. We are so thankful for that strong base of support from each other, and our families as we navigated the difficult reality of higher education facing constant failure, imposter syndrome, and the constant existential crisis that we were behind in life or at a stand-still for still being in school. Not only that, but we also dealt with an entire pandemic and the loss of an important individual, Sam's dad. We realized that loving someone while things are good is easy. However, when life throws situations that ripple through every aspect of your life, that's when that person's love and support matters most. Through every life event, we've realized that our relationship requires patience, endurance and is a marathon, not a sprint. Most importantly, we've learned compassion. Through our experiences, we had the privilege of witnessing each other's individual growth. We've seen each other step into multiple roles through time, whether it be roles of leadership, ambition, humility, failure and success. We're incredibly proud to have made it through the other side as a dual doctoral household while acknowledging that the road to get here has both strengthened and tested our relationship and has been imbedded into the fabric of who we've become. We are so grateful to be able to celebrate this special event with you as it marks a pivotal moment for us, but a thank you to all of those who have supported us through the many chapters of our lives. We are excited to celebrate together, and have a night to remember to help escape the reality of growing up and having additional responsibilities. To each other, this marks another chapter of our story, where we get to be surrounded by our favorite people, having a good time, which is literally our favorite place to be. From school to marriage, please join us in witnessing our holy matrimony as Dr. and Dr.