As told by Rachel, It was the winter of 2012. We were in our Freshman year of high school taking similar classes but in different sections. There was a field trip to Chicago in which we were tasked with "finding shapes" for our geometry assignment. The morning of the field trip, the math teachers were reading off groups and I heard a new name, Evan Pike. Both of us were pretty shy with each other at first, but ended up finding excuses to talk or partner up. We spent the day touring the city and enjoying our time together. A friendship grew quickly between us as we took any chance to chat in the halls or text after school. Fast forward to sophomore year I was hoping and praying Evan would ask me to the Homecoming dance. A tragedy of sorts happened when he told me he had a hockey tournament in St Louis that weekend. I thought that was his way of letting me down easy, but in his next breath he asked another question, "will you still go out with me"? It didn't take long to fall hard for each other. When it came time for college we both had passions we wanted to pursue. The decision to go long distance was the first and only heart break we experienced. It was difficult to think of the miles between us when we were practically inseparable. We made the best out of the situation with late night calls and visits over breaks. We fought for our love because we knew this was a true love. When graduation was approaching we counted down the days until we could start our life together. I had my hesitations about moving to CA, but after some convincing and my dream job offer, I was sold. We got our first apartment together and made it our own. I fell harder for Ev as he took me on dates around the San Francisco Bay. Within a year we adjusted to our new home and adopted our own pup, Espo. Another 6 months and Evan was on his knee at our favorite beach Half Moon Bay. Our love story is simple. When you know, you know.