This pandemic has taken a lot from us collectively--many lives, our freedom of movement, privileges, employment, health, physical contact with family, and celebrations like graduations and weddings. Right now, we're all being tried and tested in our ability to come together as a community to support one another. Your love and friendship has helped us get through a tough couple of months as we planned and replanned our wedding. Doing so has revealed what's most important to us on our wedding day-- pledging ourselves to one another in front of our closest family. We don't want to wait another month to do that! We'll be eloping in the mountains on Friday, March 12th with only our parents and siblings as guests. One day, in a hopefully not-so-distant future, we'll be able to celebrate our union the way we imagined: with much dancing, unrestricted hugging, food and drinks passed hand to hand, and lots of laughter. We're not so sure when that will be yet. Until then, use your time, energy, and brilliance on caring for yourselves and your families.

There isn't any reason for us to have met--Jose grew up in the Central Valley of California, and I grew up travelling between Michigan and Arizona. Neither one of us had any connection to Penn or even Philadelphia, both of us having applied to the school out of necessity. When we began college, we were already committed to pursuing completely different areas of study (business and creative writing). And yet, of 2,500 clamoring freshmen spread over ten dorms, we ended up next door to one another. It was a year of learning to focus on homework when you have 24 hour access to friends, ordering delivery cookies at 2 am, tracking down SEPTA tokens to get into Center City, missing our hectic families, and throwing toast onto football fields. I'm grateful for the million and one miracles that had to fall perfectly into place to bring me to him.

Robert Indiana's Love sculpture was first rendered into sculpture in 1970. Since then, it's become a global movement with statues popping up all over the world. For us, this sculpture is inextricably linked with our time together and the many places we feel at home. Philadelphia--where we first met and the City of Brotherly Love. There's a Love statue in the heart of Penn's campus. Indiana--where we reunited. Robert Indiana's home state that he loved so much he changed his name for it. New Orleans--where Jose proposed. After popping the question, we explored the New Orleans Museum of Art together, though we had to go through an exhibit twice when we realized neither of us had actually looked at any of the art. Arizona--where we'll marry and our newest home. LO VE