Our story starts around 12 years ago, at the back table of our sixth grade english class at Duluth Middle School. The first interaction either of us remember consisted of a conversation about the Georgia Tech football coach - Jess, the ever-loving Georgia fan, saying that "if Tech ever wanted to be good again, they needed to figure out their coaching situation", and Tyler, raised by the world's #1 Georgia Tech fan, immediately chimed in with an enthusiastic, "Paul Johnson sucks." From sixth grade on, we always seemed to cross paths at school. We were in the same classes, involved in similar clubs, and had mutual friends. Then, after 7 years, we were seniors and suddenly best friends. We were in most of our classes together, ate lunch together every day in Coach Reason's room, and Jess even became a team manager for the swim team (anything to get more time together). Then COVID hit, and we didn't talk for most of the summer. We both left for college, moving our lives to Birmingham, AL and Athens, GA. But thankfully, in the fall of 2020, Jess reached back out. It started by sending TikToks back and forth, and then turned into texting all day. The texting turned into hours of FaceTime calls guised under "helping Jess study for his bio test" or "I had a random question" because we swore we were "just friends." Deep down, we both knew it was more than that, but we weren't blind to the fact that we would be committing to long distance for who knows how long. So, we finished out our semesters, came home for our COVID-extended two month Christmas break (the biggest blessing for us!), and started going on dates. It only took about 3 dates to confirm that long distance would absolutely be worth it, and we made it official on December 10th, 2020. The last five years have been a whirlwind of sweet gestures from across state lines, more FaceTime calls than we could've ever imagined, and weekend visits that we will be some of our most cherished memories. We have not only had the privilege of growing up together, but now we get the joy of growing old together for the rest of our lives. We wouldn't have made it here without everyone's love and support! You have been with us through it all and we cannot wait to celebrate our marriage with you so soon. Cheers to having a long distance end date!! TL;DR: Classmates in sixth grade english class turned middle school acquaintances turned senior year best friends turned long distance college sweethearts turned engaged and getting married! Praise!