We’ve known each other since sixth grade, which mostly meant awkward hallway waves, peak middle-school rebellion: paying for one movie ticket at Merchant’s Walk and sneaking between theaters all afternoon, and running into each other at questionable open house parties when we were supposedly “spending the night at a friend's house.” After high school, life happened and our lives took separate paths, blah blah blah. Sam lived out in California, I lived out in Colorado, and while we both still hold onto those years with a deep love for skiing, snowboarding, and heading west whenever we can, our paths didn't really cross again until 2022.

That’s when our best friends Alana and Matt got married. We were both in the wedding party—and very much dating other people. Standard small talk, moving on. Cut to 2024: another round of best friends Katie and Scott tie the knot, we were in wedding party duty again, only this time we were both single. A drink at the bar after the rehearsal dinner turned into talking all night, and we've been talking every day since. We have a photo from the bar that night surrounded by some of our favorite people, butI l you can tell from the way we’re looking at each other that the rest of the room had entirely faded out.

The punchline? A few months into dating, I was digging through junk in my childhood bedroom and casually unearthed a Shutterfly photobook titled "7th Grade Memories"—and there’s seventh-grade Sam, smiling back at me through the camera lens outside Merchant's Walk - it's been sitting on my shelf for well over a decade. Apparently it just took seventeen years, cross-country moves, a few bridesmaid/groomsman gigs, and a dusty middle school photo album for us to finally get the hint.

…

Cheers to slow burns, and to forever getting lost in conversation at the bar. xoxo.