For the majority of our lives, we lived across Long Island Sound from each other. When Rachel decided to turn down the Coast Guard Academy because all her friends were going to "fun colleges," she enrolled at SUNY Stony Brook, just up the road from where Jacob (not yet Jake) was starting his junior year of high school at Ward Melville. It was almost as if the universe wanted us to meet... but perhaps not until years later as fully qualified LTJGs. In 2012, we both accepted appointments at the U.S. Naval Academy. Despite having many mutual friends and sharing a physics class together—a class only Jake remembers—it wasn't until years later, through our mutual friend Michelle, that the two of us finally met in December of 2019. Despite Michelle's best efforts to keep us apart (Jake still had some growing up to do), we grabbed coffee from The Template and went on our first date at Dog Beach in the spring of 2021 with Rachel's foster dog, Tilly. Two years later, we "foster failed" with Big Buster and started our little family. On August 23, 2023, Jacob asked Rachel to marry him at a Mt. Joy concert during their favorite song, "Let Loose." When Jacob told his mom the good news the next day, she said, "You're unemployed. I can't believe she said yes!" Rachel's dad said, "It's about time!"