High school can be a difficult time for everyone. You’re busy growing up and discovering who you are and struggling to make friends, all while trying to get an education. This time was no different for us. Upperclassmen at our school liked to “adopt” freshmen so they’d have an easier time making friends and integrating into the school’s atmosphere. On a random day at the beginning of the 2015 school year, one of my friends came up to me and introduced me to a new freshman that she was “adopting”. Although we didn't know it at the time, this would be the very beginning of our story.

As we continued our journey through high school, we found ourselves spending more time together while hanging out with our friends and during after school activities. We did a lot of the same sports after school so we always made it a point to pair up together during practices too. Spending this much time together made us realize how much more we actually had in common with each other.

After homecoming season, our high school held midterms before the winter break to give students time to relax before starting the spring semester. As you can imagine, November and December became a stressful period for all students alike. One sunny yet chilly afternoon, I sat in my bedroom studying for a math exam I had been worried about while texting Chris for moral support. While I was busy pouring over math problems, Chris was at a Christmas party building the courage to confess his feelings.

When I first received his message, I felt so many emotions at once. At this time I was a few months out of a previous relationship and also focusing on my grades to finish out the fall semester, so I wasn’t quite sure how to respond. I can still remember sitting at the kitchen table with my mother and a close family friend weighing my options. I wondered how different my life would be if I decided to stay just friends or pursue a relationship with Chris.

Flash forward a few weeks and winter break was in full swing. Midterm exams were behind us and we had endless possibilities to spend more time together. We both had managed to finish watching the Harry Potter movies and started watching the most recent seasons of the television show Supernatural that were out on Netflix. Mid break, Chris had invited me to watch a new movie with him on December 23, 2017. On that day, we spent the whole afternoon catching me up to the newest season of Supernatural before it was time to head to the theater. As we finished up the last episode of the season, while we were sitting on the couch, Chris had turned to me and asked me if I would like to be his girlfriend, and of course I said yes!

A lot has happened since our days in high school. We’ve been through a pandemic, earned Bachelor’s degrees, and have supported each other through thick and thin. During the pandemic, when things started to become very serious, we were no longer allowed to see each other in person due to the lockdowns. In order to stay in touch we spent a lot of time with each other on Skype, watching movies over watch parties, and even started sending music back and forth to each other that we thought the other would enjoy.

This began our shared enthusiasm and love for a particular band called AJR. In 2021, AJR had put out their fourth studio album, “Ok Orchestra”, and Chris invited me over to have a listening party together. The album really solidified our shared interest in the band, and our interest continued to grow. Later that year, AJR had announced they were going on tour to promote this album, and we both wanted to go so bad. Coincidentally, the show we originally bought tickets for landed on the same day as my college graduation. In a last minute scramble we bought new tickets to a different show, in hopes our song “Christmas in June” would still be played, which unbeknownst to me was supposed to be the song that Chris planned to propose to me to. Two weeks before the show, the band had changed up their setlist and removed our song which caused Chris to panic. In the days leading up to the concert, Chris had to figure which song he would have to propose to me instead.

The day of this concert would definitely test the strength of our relationship. We would start our day by driving from CT to NY to get to the venue for the concert, not knowing this would only be the beginning of our struggle that day. On our little road trip we almost got into two car accidents from crazy drivers and once we finally got into the city we got lost trying to find parking. After finally finding our parking place, we had to make the long walk to the venue in the blistering heat and stand in a line for another hour before finally getting into the venue. Despite everything we went through that afternoon we made the best of the day and enjoyed the concert. As the concert played out, Chris had been stressing about when he should propose. That was until "Sober Up" started to play. This was another song from AJR, on a previous album, that made the two of us think of each other. With a perfect opportunity falling into Chris's hands, as we sang to each other, Chris got down on one knee, and proposed to me and of course -- I said yes!

Since then, we have been through so much more from getting new jobs and developing in our careers to moving out into our first apartment together and even adopting a cat together. After all these years and everything we have been able to experience together, we look forward to taking this leap onto our next chapter in life.