Our story started at the beginning of our freshman year of high school, when we were paired together in Algebra II. Simi was the organized, academic one, and Mark was the outgoing soccer player who could make just about anyone laugh. We became friends easily, but if you had told either of us then that the person sitting beside us would one day be the person we married, neither of us would have believed you. But somewhere during our first year of high school, a friendship that neither of us thought much about at first became one of the most important parts of our lives. We became best friends, the kind who could talk about everything and nothing for hours and never seemed to run out of things to say. Looking back now, it seems everyone may have realized what was happening before we did. When COVID shut everything down in March of our freshman year, we suddenly had a lot more time to talk. And somehow, we still never ran out of things to say. We talked every day, and somewhere in all those conversations, our friendship started to become something more. On May 3rd, 2020, Mark finally asked Simi out. Our relationship began during a time when there weren’t many places to go or things to do, so our first real date didn’t come until much later. When it finally did, we went to Olive Garden. Nothing says true love like unlimited breadsticks. Three months into our relationship, Mark moved to Dallas for soccer, and we learned very early what it meant to choose each other even when being together wasn’t easy. We spent the next three years of high school long distance, making the most of FaceTime calls, visits, and every bit of time we could get together. Through senior prom, graduation, growing up, and all the changes those years bring, we kept choosing one another. Eventually, Mark convinced Simi to go to OU for college. If you knew Simi growing up, you know this was a pretty big deal. She had always been an Aggie and was convinced she would end up at A&M. Somehow, Mark changed her mind, and although she may never let him take full credit for it, following him to OU ended up being one of the best decisions she ever made. For the first time in years, we got to experience the ordinary parts of life together, and those ordinary moments became some of our favorites. Somewhere between classes, OU football games, our shared love for cheese pizza and seafood boils, late nights, and figuring out adulthood together, we realized that home had become less about a place and more about being wherever the other person was. We have celebrated each other’s biggest moments, held each other through the hard ones, and grown up side by side. There are versions of ourselves that no one else will ever know quite the same way, simply because we were there for each other through all of them. In the summer after our sophomore year of college, Mark asked Simi to marry him in his grandparents’ backyard. It was private, simple, and perfect. In the same way our story had always unfolded, not through one grand moment, but through years of little ones. It was just the two of us, choosing each other again. In July 2027, we’ll stand together in Dallas surrounded by the people who have loved us, encouraged us, and watched our story unfold. By then, it will have been nearly a decade since two freshmen were placed next to each other in an Algebra II classroom with absolutely no idea what was ahead of them. If you had told freshman-year Simi that Mark would one day be waiting for her at the end of the aisle, she probably would have laughed. Now, she can’t imagine anyone else being there. We’ve had a front-row seat to each other growing up, from fifteen-year-old kids who couldn’t even drive to the people we are today. And of all the years still ahead of us, the sweetest part is knowing we’ll get to watch each other grow old, too.