We met when we were in sixth grade at West Hollow Middle School. We became friends later that year - but we weren't exactly close. Our favorite early memories include Kim's 7th grade inscription in Shane's yearbook ("I slapped you. PS: Twice" ... we still don't know what that was about) and Shane stealing a banana flavored Laffy Taffy from Kim's locker. We moved on to high school and while our friendship grew, we tried to set each other up with mutual friends; we definitely never anticipated falling for each other ...

In the early months of Junior year, we began spending more time together when our friends would hang out. As teenagers, we weren't the smoothest people. There were many awkward moments and conversations before we were comfortable. Then we had our first (awkward) kiss at a friend's house. We began dating shortly after and the next thing we knew it was the summer before college. We knew one thing for sure: we were not going to try to make a long distance relationship work as we were going to school far apart.

Just Kidding! Before the summer was up, we decided we couldn't imagine breaking up and had to try to make it work. Kim moved 400 miles south to University of Virginia first, and a week later Shane moved 350 miles north to Geneseo. Four years, twenty five visits and countless video chat sessions later, we made it through and had way too much fun in the process.

After graduating college, we lived in Charlotte, NC for two and a half years, moving in together in September 2015. Charlotte was fun, but small and too far from family and friends, and we excitedly moved up to Boston in December 2016. In August 2017, we took a bucket list trip to Australia and explored Melbourne, Hobart, Cairns and Sydney. Shane had one goal when planning the proposal: surprise Kim, a tall order when us getting married was a matter of "when", not "if"! Kim never saw it coming when Shane asked a stranger to take our picture, and instead of posing, got down on one knee. It was the trip of a lifetime, yet our journey together has only just begun.