We met in July 2017 at a summer marine biology research program. Tori, who was 15 at the time, had been attending the program for a few summers, flying to the Florida Keys every year from Chicago. Ethan, age 16, made the trip from Connecticut for the first time that summer. When the program ended for the summer, we each realized that we wanted to be more than friends. Ethan asked Tori out, despite living 700 miles away. We had a long-distance relationship for six years until getting engaged in August 2023, when we were 22. After one more year of long-distance, we moved in together in the summer of 2024. After almost nine years together, we can't wait to tie the knot.