I like to tell people we met at the airport. Yes, it's clickbait, but it's also true. We were both students at UGA, both departing on the same study abroad to Israel and Palestine in December of 2018. Still, it's hard to dream up an airport meeting as special as this one. I saw a cute girl in a wonderfully colorful rain jacket, and she saw a cute boy with a canvas jacket over a black hoodie. We introduced ourselves outside the Delta baggage counter. Our love has emerged, grown, and deepened in so many amazing ways in the six and a half(!) years since that day. We've had incredible adventures together, but what strikes me most powerfully when I think of spending our lives together is just how special Mackenzie makes the small moments in life's quotidian spaces. This is a lesson I began learning way back then, when an unassuming spot on the parquet floor of Hartsfield-Jackson Airport became one of the most cherished memories of my life.

Things didn't work out for us right away. We stayed close friends through our last two years at UGA, although we never found the right time to date. We still have great memories from those years—long walks, staying up into the early morning talking, study sessions—and our connection was undeniable to both of us. The trust and vulnerability we established in those years would be a critical foundation for making it through the eight months of long-distance when we first started dating in May 2021.

I had moved to Denver in the summer of 2020, at the height of the pandemic. Mackenzie moved to Atlanta. It grew painful for us to talk, knowing that, once again, the timing wasn't quite right. Although we didn't voice it to each other at the time, we both had a suspicion that this wasn't quite the end of our story. How right and how fortunate we were! In April 2021, Mackenzie attended a symphony performance. I'll be forever thankful for that symphony, as the swells and rests of that music reminded Mackenzie of the irreplaceable connection we'd had and put aside. She decided to go for it! We made arrangements for her to visit me in Denver, and, over the course of that week, got together for real.

After eight months of distance, three years in Denver, and six months in Virginia, freckled with adventures to Hawaii, Yellowstone, Spain, and elsewhere, we only had one question left to answer: "Will you marry me?" Many more adventures await us, whether it be camping in the snow at the Grand Canyon, crying together at the end of a movie on the couch, or laughing at how silly we allow ourselves to be. Each memory I have with Mackenzie is a memory I cherish. They are all unique, and they are all with love.

We return to the memory of meeting at the airport often. In the letters we wrote each other to celebrate our engagement, we both sought to capture the inexpressible gratitude of having met each other. It's even frightening, to think of the string of perfect circumstances that allowed us to be where we are today. But we don't focus on what didn't happen; we focus on what did. In an ever uncertain world, we found the love of our life, safe harbor for our hearts. We can't wait to say "I do." Where do we sign?

Griffin

Virginia, April 2025