let’s celebrate!

We met for the first time as Community Leaders (RA's) at Baylor, and it was essentially love at first sight for me. I was immediately smitten, and began pursuing a relationship with Hailey. While she was receptive of all the attention I was giving her, she made sure to let me know I was only a friend to her. But, I respectfully persisted, continuing to be a great friend to her while never wavering in my feelings for something more. Then one day, Hailey's family invited me to join them for a long weekend at their house. I won over the hearts of her family, who began advocating for me as a boyfriend. Then finally, Hailey succumbed to reason and accepted my request to be my girlfriend after much wooing from me. We dated throughout college, but graduate school caused distance and we temporarily took a break. Our story came to a conclusion as I spontaneously decided to quit my job in Pennsylvania, and move across the country for her. We've been through it all, but it has ended in a wonderful way!

Fall semester sophomore year, I met Jonathan and it was love at first sight (for him). I could tell he might’ve had a crush on me but I played it cool – maybe too cool and kept him in the friend zone for most of fall semester. I told everyone and convinced myself that we were JUST FRIENDS. We did everything together as friends – we went to football games as friends, met for lunch at Penland as friends, took each other to sorority and ZZZ events as friends, went on study dates as friends – you get the picture right? At this point all our friends knew it was more, Jonathan knew it was more, but I was a chicken afraid of my own feelings. Jonathan was patient but persistent. He even recruited the freshmen on his floor to set up an elaborate date for us – a catered candlelit dinner for two, a record player with soft jazz playing in the background, a fake fireplace crackling from a TV screen and even freshmen in their suits dressed up to be our waiters for the night. The date was so sweet, can you believe I STILL said we were JUST FRIENDS after that?! My friends both at Baylor and from home knew I liked him, heck my DAD knew. He convinced me to bring Jonathan home for a weekend. A weekend where he happened to meet my abuelos for the first time and the rest of the family. They all fell for his charm and knew I was a sucker for it too. But still! We were friends. Shortly after that, I started to see what everyone around us was seeing – Jonathan is and was a great guy, one that made me happier than ever and someone I wanted to spend all my time with. We FINALLY started dating and kept it that way all throughout college. Jonathan never stopped pursuing me even after he broke through the friendzone and I am so thankful for that and him. His unwavering pursuit brought us together and it’s a vow I plan to make to him – to continue that pursuit to love one another in our marriage! (P.S. Jonathan is still my #1 best friend)