We first met in January 2016. Ryan was attending medical school in Rochester while Jason was still working in Buffalo. After we chatted for a few days, we had our first date at a coffee shop located halfway between Buffalo and Rochester.

This kicked off our medium-distance relationship, with each of us going to Buffalo or Rochester every other weekend. After eight months, it was time to go long distance, as Ryan was going to Africa for a year to do research. We maintained our relationship by texting every day, talking on the phone on the weekends, and watching movies together - synchronizing when we hit play on the massive movie library he brought with him. Jason visited for a few weeks where we explored Malawi and Zambia, going on safari, and Jason even survived without his daily Mountain Dew

After Medical School, we moved to NYC for Ryan's residency at NewYork-Presbyterian. Our original engagement plan was for Jason to propose on our trip to Hawaii in April 2020... but the universe had other plans. We weren't sure what our plan was given COVID, but Ryan had a rare 5 day stretch off at the end of May, we rented an AirBnB in Lake Placid, hiked a mountain, and got engaged!