When people ask how we met, we don't even really know. Jack says I found his phone in Ms. Tenelsoff's (whatta name, am i right?) 6th grade core class and brought it back to him. He did me the kindness, a year or so later, of being good buddies with the guy who stole my phone. What a lovely full circle moment. All jokes aside, we really became aware of each other in our freshman P.E. class with Mr. Willson. I quickly claimed my title of "That Girl", because I was the kind of person who was always reminded, "It's Not The Olympics." These Olympic Efforts of mine were worthy of Jack's attention when we entered swim unit. Little did I know, at the time, my saxophone trained lungs would set me apart in the underwater distance challenges we did. Clearly, my peacocking worked, because I caught his eye and we began our long journey towards partnership. While my lacrosse physique was a sure attractant, my intellect really bent Jack to his insatiable desire, when we had Sociology together with Ms. E. It was there we learned how to expand our perception of the world and were instilled with a more genuine understanding of what our interactions with others meant. We were both dating others that year, but the universe began its magical matchmaking and we both discovered that we went home thinking of each other. Ultimately, we just never stopped thinking about each other. The next year, we discovered what a prolific and electric friendship we had. We moved from friends, quickly to best friends. Despite Jack's best efforts, we remained very close friends for about nine months. This nine months of friendship ended up being the proper gestational period for our love to grow and mature into something we just couldn't deny. At minimum, we knew it couldn't be walked away from. March 25, 2018 was the day we clasped hands as partners, seeing our futures ahead of us. We were both just six months away from moving out of state (to different states) to begin our higher education journeys. Not only did we experience the first truly independent moments of our adult lives, we also navigated a long distance relationship with each other. We learned what it meant to love someone more than you knew what to do with. We learned what it meant to love someone when it was hard to love ourselves. We learned what persistence looked like. We learned how to love each other while trying to love ourselves. We learned what it meant to want more for someone. We learned what hardship looks like when love is easy. We learned what hardship looks like when loving each other felt like hardship. In the end, we learned the most valuable lesson so far: To love each other is to be seen, understood, encouraged, fought with, fought for, accepted completely and shamelessly, and to never give up on What Matters. Our Commitment Ceremony is our way of sharing What Matters to us with those Who Matter to us. We are prioritizing everything that Is Us. That is Our Love. That is True to Who We Are. Thank you for being here with us so far, both in our lives and in our relationship. Thank you, now, for taking this next step with us in building Our Family. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ We have taken the surname "Oak" to represent our strong, bold love for each other and to respect the individuals we see ourselves and each other as. We are unwavering, sturdy, and from the Bay Area babyyyyy!!!!!