Our story begins back in 2016, when two teenagers became great friends in high school. We laughed, shared memories, and built the kind of friendship that always felt a little extra special even if we didn’t quite realize it yet. After graduation, life led us down separate paths for a couple years. But as fate would have it, our paths were never meant to stay apart for long. When I moved to Athens, Jake moved there just a couple of months later though, funny enough, we still didn’t talk much at first. Then came Jake’s 21st birthday party. Out of the blue, he invited me, and something about that night just felt right. We hadn’t seen each other in years, but the second we started talking, it was as if no time had passed at all. The spark we once had as friends grew into something so much deeper. After that night, we were inseparable, truly together almost everyday that ended in “Y.” Two months later, we made it Facebook official (a true modern-day milestone!). And not long after, I was the one who told Jake “I love you” first something he still loves to remind me of to this day. From that moment on, we’ve built our life side by side quite literally, since we’ve lived together ever since we started dating. Four and a half years later, Jake got down on one knee on the beautiful beaches of Hilton Head, South Carolina, on September 20th, 2024. It was the most magical day of our lives and the biggest surprise (which is saying something, because I’m very hard to surprise!). A perfect ending to one chapter and the sweetest beginning of the next.