We’ve been neighbors our entire lives—two doors down from each other, but worlds apart thanks to an inconvenient age gap that kept us from ever overlapping in school. We share a few hazy childhood memories from growing up on the same court. Taylor would go over to the Ho’s to see if the boys could play Pokémon, and Zach remembers carving pumpkins together one Halloween. Our parents tell stories of Zach throwing little spiky pine cones at Taylor while all the neighbors ran around the Brown’s backyard. Still, we were nothing more than neighbors, and we moved through our teenage and young adult years without much interaction. Years later, Zach was working in San Francisco and Taylor was attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. In March 2020, COVID-19 hit, and like many others, we both moved back home temporarily—ending up back on Cora Court. Ironically, the Thursday morning trash pickup ended up being how we finally connected. One hot summer day, Zach was taking out the trash and dragging the cans to the street when Taylor happened to be driving off to babysit. She did a double-take, we exchanged smiles, and when Taylor got home, she immediately asked her mom who the neighbor was and when trash day happened each week. Weeks later, Zach was still on her mind. With some friendly encouragement from family, Taylor messaged Zach on Instagram, commenting on a post about his cat at the time, Klay. Texting quickly turned into a first-date night hike. From then on, we were spending time together every day—playing video games, working on puzzles, biking, and enjoying shows like The Great British Baking Show and Bob’s Burgers. By Thanksgiving 2020, we were officially dating. As COVID restrictions eased, life slowly returned to normal. Taylor needed to finish her final months at Cal Poly, so we temporarily navigated long distance. After graduation, we moved into an apartment in Walnut Creek and began building our life together. Since then, we’ve taken unforgettable trips to Hawaii, adopted pets (we now have two cats, Kiwi and Momo), bought a car, and spent countless hours gaming together in Palworld. After five years together, on September 21, 2025, Zach proposed to Taylor at Waimānalo Beach—a place especially meaningful to us and to Zach’s family. We are so excited to celebrate with you in Hawaii and begin this next chapter of our lives together!