We first met in fifth grade band, practicing drum rolls to the beat and eye rolls to our teacher’s jokes. In freshman year of high school we spent most of English sharing riddles with each other. It wasn’t until the summer of senior year when we started getting close. After hanging out with friends a handful of times and revealing our feelings to those friends, they let us know the feelings were mutual. Jess sent Micah a text from the Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego, and since then we’ve been inseparable. Except of course for a brutal four years of long distance, with Micah in San Diego, and Jess in New York. The countless, choppy FaceTime dates, and the hours of “walk and talks” (a phone call with one headphone in while each of us went on a walk, Micah under a beautiful sunset on the beach, and Jess in a whiteout blizzard…) forged our relationship into what it is today. The vision of our life together today is what got us through, and we’re so grateful to finally be in the light at the end of the tunnel.

In the middle of the pandemic, and just a few weeks before our 8th anniversary, Jess planned a getaway staycation in La Jolla. We dropped our bags off at our ocean view Airbnb, and headed out to pick up our dinner at Urban Plates, our favorite restaurant to eat together when Jess would visit during college. Food in hand, Jess led us to the beach cliffs we used to walk and set up a picnic overlooking the ocean. We reminisced while watching the sun set, and Jess went fumbling through his backpack to get his “jacket”. As the golden hour rolled in, Jess got out the ring and proposed. The rest of the vacation evolved into a celebration, with hikes, romantic comedies, retrospection, planning our future, and living in our happiest moment thus far.