Zack and Julie owe their relationship to the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974. This bill established the Congressional Budget Office, which is where they met as interns in the summer of 2018. Zack, who was getting his PhD in Economics at the University of Alabama, spent his summer with the Financial Analysis Division. Julie, who was receiving her Masters in Public Policy from the University of Southern California, worked in the Communications office. They were also members of the CBO softball team, the Dynamic Scorers. 

 

After a whirlwind summer, the two went back to their respective homes and back to their lives at school with a plan for three trips to see if they could manage the distance between Los Angeles and Alabama: a trip to Los Angeles, then Chicago (where Zack had previously lived), and then finally to the Iron Bowl football game in Alabama. They started officially dating one day into their trip in Los Angeles in September 2018. 

 

In 2019, Julie graduated from USC and took a job in Boston and Zack decided to forego his plans of becoming a professor to take his dream job as a trader in Chicago. Shortly after the COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020, Zack and Julie made the decision to quarantine in Boston. After a longer than expected quarantine, they embarked on a road trip in August 2020 to South Bend, Indiana where Julie would be starting at the University of Notre Dame to receive her MBA. Zack moved back into his apartment in Chicago and Zack and Julie continued their long-distance relationship, albeit this time they were within driving distance.

 

Julie was supposed to intern with an investment bank in Chicago the summer of 2021 but ended up being moved to New York seemingly continuing their long-distance adventure. On June 12, 2021, two days before Julie’s internship was scheduled to start, Zack asked to take Julie out on a date to celebrate finishing her first year of her MBA and her summer internship. After a drink at LazyBird, Zack proposed to Julie, and she happily accepted. Fearing they were late for dinner at North Pond to celebrate their engagement, Zack assured Julie it would be okay if they were a few minutes late. When they arrived, Julie was completely shocked to see their families and closest friends there to celebrate their engagement. 

 

Zack and Julie are so grateful for their friends and family and can’t wait to celebrate their wedding in May and to finally live in the same city.