Band was a huge part of our life growing up, and the origin of many lifelong friends. (Shoutout to Clarissa, Dylan, Andy, Mason, Kennedy, and more!) We started dating at the end of our freshman year, 2012, when we were 14. Blake “officially” asked me to be his girlfriend after the band played at graduation, since we were thoroughly talking and interested for months leading up to that. We dated through the rest of high school, enjoying band concerts, marching band, soccer, Key Club, homework lunches, Dr. Pepper drinking games at New Years parties, and other memories. He introduced me back into reading with Harry Potter, and we spent hours playing Super Smash Bros, Kirby AirRide, and more on the Gamecube. In 2015, we then found ourselves about to start college – at different colleges. (WTAMU in Canyon vs Texas Tech in Lubbock.) As 18 year olds do, we neglected talking about this beforehand and just hoped things would work out. This first attempt at long distance was the most challenging point in our relationship, but one year later we had learned some life lessons and reunited at Texas Tech that fall. We were part of the Goin’ Band from Raiderland and the band’s service sorority and fraternity. (TBS and KKY!) We dated through dorm life, Brandon Sanderson books, Game of Thrones watch parties with old and new friends, and lots of walking across the Tech campus. (Shoutout to Shane, Zachary, Raven, Amy, and more!) We moved in together pretty much as soon as we could get away from student housing (2018.) Again, this happened without a whole lot of discussion, but in a good way this time! It felt like the obvious best choice for roommates. 😊 We both already knew by this point that we were committed to each other, after 6 years of dating, so it was an easy decision. Those first few months of living together were awesome. We could suddenly hang out all the time? Heck yeah! We combined our apartments and enjoyed thrifting to fill our rental house with furniture. We hosted board game nights, poker nights, and made weekend trips to Austin and later Houston to visit friends. (Shoutout to Garrett, John Michael, and Barak!) The pandemic hit in 2020, and our homebody habits remained relatively unchanged. We started fostering cats with the SPCA and Kat’s Alley Cats late in 2019, and it became our hobby (obsession?) through much of 2020. We adopted our first pet together, Spice, on Laurel’s birthday in 2020. She’s the one on our Save the Dates and Wedding Invitations. 😊 We spent quarantine times largely staying home doing what we most enjoy – playing video games with friends online and playing Terraforming Mars with each other. Our year of long-distance dating in college was only the first bout of it. At this point, we’ve done long-distance for a total of almost 3 years. We were apart during my Spring 2019 Dallas accounting internship and again Fall of 2020 when I taught at WTAMU. We grouped back up to move to Dallas at the end of 2020, which included getting our last three foster cats adopted and selling furniture that didn’t make the cut for the move. A few months into 2021, Blake left for 5 months of Basic Military Training in San Antonio and Technical School Training in Mississippi. Those 2 months of basically no contact at BMT was awful. Time passed and we managed as best we could though. He came back for a couple months, then left for the Border Mission for 10 months. That one was a doozy, as he didn’t know how long he’d be there. 3 months? A year? No one knew until he received 2 weeks' notice that he was done. We found a system of going to visit each other about once a month, and we made the most of it by exploring the Brownsville/McAllen area’s Air BnBs, brunch spots, and catching up on our board game time. Now here we are! 11 years of dating later. Yes it was a big deal that we got engaged in 2022, but we’ve known since 2016 that was going to happen. We’re now living in Addison, TX, fostering cats, and enjoying soccer again.