Once upon a time, in 2023, I was getting to a point in my life where I felt ready to date. So I was trying a few dating apps. And then I got knee surgery. No worries. As soon as I was off crutches, I was going to keep swiping. That didn’t work so well with the extreme complications from the knee surgery left me in the hospital for 2 1/2 weeks. When I finally got out, I was determined to get back to regular life and dating as soon as possible. So I kept swiping. On December 17, 2023, Braxton and I matched on Hinge. We started casually chatting and our messages to each other gradually got longer and longer. Normally I would’ve already pushed for a date, but I still wasn’t feeling 💯. But we kept messaging and messaging. Finally he asked me out for that Friday and I was so excited. I had a few follow up doctor’s appts including a minor outpatient procedure that Wednesday but I wasn’t worried. I told Braxton that I had been sick and I had a doctors appt so I wouldn’t be super available on Wednesday. I woke up from the surgery back in the ICU. I told the nurses that I couldn’t be there because I had a date to go on. I told Braxton my doctors appt didn’t go as planned and that we would have to postpone our date. He was so incredibly understanding and kind and simply said, I will be here whenever you are ready to go on a date. I fought so hard to get better and to get off pain killers so I could drive myself to our date (although my mom would’ve totally dropped me off if I needed haha). We went on a lovely date to Olive Garden and to see the new Godzilla. I knew right away that there was something different about him. He was so kind and thoughtful and helpful and just had a warm smile and a warm soul. It was exactly two weeks until I asked him to be my boyfriend and we have been inseparable ever since.

I had been using dating apps on and off for about a year, but it never led to anything—until I matched with Beth! Right away, I was stunned by how beautiful she was. But it was when we started talking that I knew this would be different. We immediately started having really fun, engaging conversations about everything—from our favorite concerts to places we wanted to travel. All I wanted to do was message her, and I was always so excited to see her reply! After about a week or so of texting, I decided to ask her on a date—and lucky me, she said yes!! We had planned to go to Dave & Buster’s on Friday, but she said she was sick, so we decided to play it by ear (me having no idea how sick she actually was at the time). Then on Wednesday, she texted me saying she was in the ICU and that her doctor’s appointment hadn’t gone as planned—we were going to have to reschedule our date. I told her it was 100% okay and that the most important thing was for her to feel better. She was able to go home from the hospital on Christmas Eve, and we had our date planned for December 30th. We went to Olive Garden and had a great time, then went to the movies to watch Godzilla. From then on, I was completely hooked. I deleted all my dating apps that night because I knew I had found someone truly special—and I wanted to put all my effort into turning this into something real. Worked out pretty well if you ask me! 😁😁😁