For those of you who don't know - here is the story of the beginning of our adventure together: We were lucky enough to call each other work colleagues and friends since August 2014. We spent much of the next five years randomly running into each other and chatting about neuroscience. It wasn't until Dr. Cory Reiter's defense celebration in February of 2020 that we realized we could both use a casual partner in crime to take on the task of saying goodbye to Chicago. We went on our first date the very next day. Sam pushed back drinks twice because she was in the lab. Luckily, Evan knows a thing or two about getting stuck doing experiments and he didn't decide to raincheck. The date went better than we could have ever imagined. Jazz Night at The Whistler turned into watching the sunrise at the lakefront. We quickly established that this was each of our perfect scenarios - incredible company before we said goodbye and jetted off to our respective sides of the country. But COVID quickly changed everything. The pandemic found us quarantining together, sharing our respective social bubbles, and building a solid support system with each other through the end of both of our degrees. Evan sat in the other room while Sam defended her thesis as the first Zoom defense at UIC. Sam handwrote Evan's Match Day letter when he learned he would be heading to Columbia for residency. We moved each other across the country, camping on the way to move Sam out to Seattle, then driving down to Natchitoches to start Evan's journey toward New York. The rest has been an absolutely beautiful adventure. Three years of long distance made easier with intentional communication. Nearly five years after it all started, and over ten since we met, we are lucky to live together in New York, still chatting with each other about neuroscience. We feel so grateful every day to have found this adventurous partnership in one another, and we cannot wait to celebrate this love with y'all! ⬡