Madison and I first met at a tennis tournament in Oklahoma City in the summer of 2013. We were introduced by some mutual friends (shoutout Mac and Anna) and had our eye on each other from the start. Weirdly enough, our mothers seemed to hit it off more quickly than Madison and me as they talked pretty much nonstop at all of the tournaments that summer. Madison and I were a little bit slower as we did not necessarily jump into a relationship immediately, however, there were clear signs of interest on both sides. A few months of nonstop texting and a couple tennis tournaments later, Madison and I ironed out some details and began officially dating. Our relationship started off with long distance and only really morphed into longer distance. Madison started school in LA so naturally I decided to make things a little difficult by attending school on the complete opposite side of the country in Boston. We knew that the odds were against us when entering college in a long distance relationship but we never really doubted our ability to get through it together. Thanks to countless facetimes, a few red-eye flights, and the occasional letter, we persevered and made it through undergrad together – only to be rewarded with a few more months of distance as Madison decided to travel the world pursuing her tennis career while I finished up school. At this point, it was evident that Madison and I were committed to each other and ready to take the next step with our relationship. On December 20, 2019, I asked Madison to marry me. As you might have guessed, she said yes! Soon after, she moved to Boston, ending our roughly 7 years of long distance dating. Transitioning from seeing each other once every few months to quarantining together throughout the pandemic has been quite a change, but it is one that we have welcomed quite happily. We are very excited to celebrate alongside everyone this coming September! Can’t wait to see you then! -Michael and Madison