Alec and I met while I was visiting North Carolina and he was going to MOS school there. It just so happened to be his birthday weekend so upon meeting lots of new people, I also met his family. Me being more introverted than extroverted, Alec and I barely spoke. By barely, I mean only 2, MAYBE 4, sentences. Over a 2 day period. On my road trip home back to Rhode Island, a message pops up on my phone. It's Alec telling me it was nice meeting me and to get home safely. From then on, we talked here and there about our lives, our faith, or whatever came up at that time. A month after meeting, he got stationed at Camp Pendleton in California so I never thought we would see each other again. Maybe that's what made it easier to talk to a *basically* stranger?! I was obsessed with hilarious memes and start tagging Alec in a bunch of them (risky move but turns out we had the same sense of humor). This went on and on and most of the time, was our only form of communication. In my head, I daydreamed about the day Alec and I would meet again and live happily ever after. I knew he was a keeper just from the few times we talked via text (I never let him call or FaceTime me because hello, still a stranger!) I used to always tell my best friend Randi "imagine if I run into Alec one day and we get married and have babies!", as if he would just pop up in Rhode Island one day. Turns out, my meme tagging paid off because *9 months after meeting in NC* Alec's dad caught onto it and starting checking out my Facebook. He asked Alec who I was and he jokingly (ish) responded, "My future wife!". Alec's dad then invited me to spend Christmas with them in Las Vegas! I said yes before I could even think about the fact that I was going to fly across the country by myself to spend Christmas with a family I barely knew. A few weeks later, I was on a plane. Alec and I met up in the lobby and INSTANTLY we knew we were going to be together. No awkwardness, no doubts. Now, here we are!