Our moms were friends while they were pregnant with us, but we grew up on opposite sides of the country. We met for the first time we can remember on the 4th of July, the summer after our first year of high school. We had independently developed interests in math and physics and became fast friends over discussions of hypercubes and black holes. There were literal fireworks. We kept in touch over email, yahoo chat, and skype. We visited in the summers, worked on coding challenges together, and got teased about each other by our friends. In college, we visited each other on holidays, left long voicemails, and got teased about each other by new friends. We became a couple on the 4th of July, the summer after our first year of college, four years to the day after becoming friends at the same pond in Massachusetts. We embarked on three years of long-distance, visiting each other monthly, and finally living together our junior summer in Providence. After a gap year, we went to grad school to pursue our shared passion for quantum gravity. We were finally able to live, study, and make a home together in Pennsylvania. While on fellowship in France, we went on vacation in Lucerne, Switzerland. There, on the 4th of July, Jackson proposed with a hand-made ring, featuring an obsidian stone he had collected on our hike together the summer after we became friends. He also made a beautiful commitment to make a new ring each year, as he perfected his craft and we continued to learn, grow, and invest in our relationship. We exchanged rings and celebrated our engagement. Now that we have earned our PhD’s, secured jobs in Massachusetts, and begun putting down roots in Worcester, we are finally getting married! We will be getting legally married on the 4th of July, privately exchanging our vows at the same pond where we became a couple twelve years prior and became friends four years before that. We will be having an extended marriage ceremony, partying with all of you in CA on July 12th and MA on August 16th. Thank you for being part of our love story. We can hardly wait to celebrate with you!