Michael and I met back in 2020 while both pursuing jet training in Meridian, MS. What started out as a friendship for about the first year quickly grew into a budding relationship. We hoped to wind up stationed in the same place, but unfortunately (classically) the Navy had other plans. We up wound about as far away as we could for training in Virginia Beach, VA and Whidbey Island, WA. At that point we knew, it was relationship that was worth continuing to grow. We traveled back and forth over the next 6 months meeting each other's families, hosting Thanksgiving, and visiting each other in both Virginia and Washington. In April of 2022, we got engaged and decided that we would like to get legally married quickly because we knew we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. On April 22, I flew on a red eye flight after a full workday to get married on a Friday morning. When I got to Virginia, I quickly got ready and Michael and I hurried over to the court house. We had a private ceremony for the two of us at city hall and were very excited to start our lives together! Since then, we have still been stationed apart due to Navy orders, but have been so fortunate with the help of family and friends to be able to see each other as often as possible. Meeting Michael made me realize, for the right person, you can make anything work. While we have travelled back and forth from Lemoore to Whidbey Island many times, we have also been fortunate to meet up in San Diego, Phoenix, Chicago, Vegas, DC, and even Singapore! Michael had been deployed over the holidays (and will be again this Christmas) so I was fortunate enough to be able to travel to him just prior to Christmas and explore Singapore together. While it will have been over two years of marriage before we were able to get everyone together to celebrate, we are so excited to finally get to celebrate with everyone! Only thing left is to get the Navy to station us together :) -Amanda