It’s Spring of 2011. I remember first seeing her in English class during my freshman year at Kansas. During one of our first few classes, we were broken up into groups to have a discussion on some book that I hadn’t read before... My partner was Asia Ray, a seemingly quiet girl with beautiful eyes and a great smile. Initially, I had my reservations about her because I knew she was cool with the football team. At that time, Kansas basketball players and football players were still beefing after the fight that happened the year before. The sarcasm started to flow pretty quickly and I could quickly tell that we had a connection. The both of us tried to find a way to talk to each other at least once every class period. It usually started with one person asking if the other did the homework or if they could borrow a pen. Although we always spoke in class, we kept it pretty low key in public. Did I know she had a boyfriend at the time? Yes. Did I like him? No. But, out of respect for her, I tried to keep it cool. She made her move on May 3rd, 2011. Slid into the my Facebook DMs. She wrote, “Thanks for all of your advice. My paper is gonna be so much better now! BTW I think I found my most important paragraph lol”. Without context, this message seems harmless and really thoughtful. In reality this was 100% sarcasm and she was being an asshole. To me, that message was essentially a green light. We would always see each other at my go-to spot, Brother’s Bar. It was there that I hit her with my best move. I would go to the bar. Hide behind some of my tallest teammates… and throw ice at her. As expected, she loved it. Next thing you know, we’re talking at the bar for most of the night and having a great time. This continued for years. Any time we saw each other, we had to speak. We knew we had a thing for each other, but wouldn’t say it. It was easy for me to tell that she had a great heart. She was funny, smart, and strong-willed. This went on for all four years at Kansas. We knew we liked each other, but the time was never right. Fast forward to November 2, 2018. I’m living in Indianapolis, talking to my cousin Vinny, reminiscing on college and all of the fun that we had when he visited me on campus. For whatever reason he asked me about the girl from KU that I always had a thing for. Soon after he asked, “What did she look like again?”, I headed to Facebook, found a picture of Asia, and sent it over. He took a while to answer. I go back to my text messages to see if I missed his message and see that I accidentally sent the message to Asia. We hadn’t spoken in years man... This isn’t 2024, there was no unsend button. Asia responds a few minutes later asking what this was all about. I ask her “Well do you want the long version or the cliff notes?” She responds, “I’ll take the long version. I’m intrigued’ Welp, it turns out, the long version is forever. She is about to become my wife, and I can’t imagine another person that I would rather spend the rest of my life with. Big thank you to Steve Jobs for holding on to that update for a few more years.

It all began in an English class at the University of Kansas. I was a wide-eyed freshman, soaking up every word from our professor, but my attention often wandered to the handsome guy sitting in the back chit-chatting and laughing with some girls from the volleyball team. He was pretty cute. But I was very focused on my studies. He often asked to copy my homework, and I’d let him. I was basically his tutor, now that I think about it. We did eventually become great friends —friends who clearly liked each other, but I digress. After college, life took us on different journeys, across the country from each other but we managed to keep in touch, even if sporadically. We’d talk about our jobs and how we both worked in sports and we’d bounce ideas off of each other. It was really nice. Our conversations would fade if either of us was dating someone else; and then we just lost touch completely. And that’s how it was for a while. A looooong while tbh. Not a peep. No communication. Not even following each other on social media. Not even sure we were on the same planet. But then… One day out of the blue, I received a text from Niko. It was a picture of me and a friend, accompanied by the message: “The one on the left.” (which was yours truly) A second text quickly followed: “Well, this is awkward.” And boy, was it awkward! But it was also funny and a little exhilarating, my heart skipped a beat. I was lowkey excited. We hadn’t spoken in about three years, so I was curious to see where this would go. Just as I thought, he couldn’t get me off of his mind after all this time. I wasn’t really sweating it though. We started texting a little bit after that and I eventually told him, “Look. When you’re in town, you can take me out and we can catch up in person”. (had to be a lil direct) this will they, won’t they had gone on long enough. When Niko finally did come to town, we had a great time catching up. We easily fell back into our rhythm—two goofballs who had long harbored crushes on each other, that had a great friendship. But it was definitely different this time. Well, womp womp. He lived in Indianapolis, and I was living in Kansas City, soon moving to Florida. And I don’t know if we made a conscious decision at the time but we just never lost touch again. We didn’t let a little distance keep us apart this time. Obviously this is the cliffs notes version but it’s still pretty spot on. Anywho, for the next 3 1/2 years, we visited each other back and forth—I’d go to Indy, he’d come to Florida. After a while I had begun working remotely and was so ready to leave Florida and Niko was interviewing for a great new job and that’s what led us to Colorado. He got the job and we made the move together to Colorful Colorado. We were finally together, together! So long story short; We’re getting married now! Niko insists that the “the one on the left” text was just an accidental message meant for his cousin Vinny. But I’m convinced it was on purpose because he knew I was the woman of his dreams and had to get creative to get back on my radar.(it worked) Either way, I couldn’t be happier that he “accidentally” (on purpose) sent that text. Fast forward six wonderful, funny and loving years later, here we are, ready to embark on a new adventure together. I can.not. wait. to forever be the one on his left.