Alex and I met back in 2019 on a mission trip with your church’s youth group. At that point, we weren’t friends—just the “cool senior guy” everyone looked up to and the freshman girl who sang good-morning songs to wake people up. After that trip, we exchanged polite hellos in passing, but that was about it. Most of the time, Alex was out of town for school at Grand Canyon University. Later, I decided to commit to GCU (completely of my own accord—I was not in touch with Alex at all). The summer before I moved to Arizona, Alex and I reconnected while volunteering with the youth group. Alex was the only person I knew at GCU, and he had a car, which meant he could take me to church… so yes, you could say I used him for his car ;) —but I promised it would only be temporary. The first week we went to church, I was being introduced to many people, including Alex’s friend Grace and her now-husband Joel. At one point, they turned to us and said, “And did I hear you two are… fiancés?” It’s funny to think back on now, but at the time we both immediately stepped away from each other and said “no”—no less than five times. We ended up sticking with that church, which was a 25-minute drive from campus and gave us plenty of time to talk. Eventually, my birthday rolled around, and while trying to make conversation, I mentioned how much I wanted to go swing dancing. Alex said he’d be willing to drive me and my friends… and long story short, it ended up being just the two of us. Alex has said that the night we went swing dancing was when he realized I was no longer just an annoying freshman, but a someone he was interested in. At this point, the story changes hands—so I’ll let Alex take it from here. That night at the dance hall, we were both learning how to swing dance, but by the end of the evening, all I really learned was that I needed to take her dancing again. Two weeks later, we found ourselves back at the same dance hall—except this time I was so nervous I kept tripping over my shoes (even more than normal). I was nervous but excited to be dancing with her. I asked her out, and guess what she said… “no.” Well, not exactly. She said, “not yet.” She wanted us to keep building our friendship, to mature, and to make sure we were ready to commit to a relationship. Three months later, we FINALLY started dating! We had a wonderful year and a half filled with swing dancing, intramural sports, hammocking, movie nights, backpacking, Panera dates after church, and spending as much time together as possible. Then I graduated and began my schooling in Erie, while she remained in Arizona. During my senior year at GCU, our apartments had been about 30 seconds apart—and suddenly, we were 30 hours apart. While long distance was certainly difficult, it encouraged us to be far more intentional in our communication and helped us truly learn and understand one another on a deeper level. On July 18, 2025, I told Sarah we were going to a family reunion with my cousins at a local park nearby. When we arrived, there was a gazebo decorated with flowers, pictures, and candles—and that’s where I got down on one knee. To this day, I can’t remember exactly what I said, but she made me the happiest man in the world when she said yes! P.S. She won’t admit it, but she never saw it coming.