Starting optometry school in the midst of the 2020 pandemic was not exactly where we thought our love story would begin. We were isolated and unable to get together and meet one another as a class before our first semester of graduate school began. I was lucky enough to meet our incredible friend group the weekend before classes started and we bonded instantly. Jeremy met a few of the guys at a school event that I didn’t attend a few weeks into starting classes - they instantly clicked! He was added to our group chat that night. Although we hadn’t met, his responses in the chat let me know he was a wonderful father to a cute cat with asthma, a man in his twenties who had an incredibly clean apartment & fully stocked fridge with lots of fruits and veggies (SCORE!!), and that he was a funny guy (with no filter) that I was excited to meet. Our whole group got together for the first time with our new addition to have a fun night out and blow off steam, but I was back home in Mobile for my brother’s birthday. That night, our friend Paul told Jeremy how much he was going to like me when we met for the first time. The next morning, I got a call from Tam telling me how much I was going to love this funny, cat-obsessed new guy who joined our group. We finally met a few days later out at a bar with our friends…and the rest was history! We spent the entire night telling funny stories, bonding, and winning a gift card playing trivia with our group. From that time on, we were isolated together, as a friend group and as a couple. Jeremy and I did everything together - from trying new restaurants, to watching lectures, to getting COVID. We fell in love almost as quickly as we became best friends. Being together and having an amazing support group circling us made us feel unstoppable, even when school was kicking our ass. We got engaged our last year of school at a gazebo overlooking a pond where we had our first date. Jeremy surprised me not only with the proposal, but also by gathering all our friends and family for a beautiful surprise engagement party after I said yes! What a keeper! We cannot wait to share our big day and celebrate our love story with all of the people in our lives who mean so much to us. We hope to see you in Phoenix in October of 2025!