Leigh and I met (for real) back in August 2022 during a meet and greet set up by the Lowcountry Highrollers roller derby team. Unofficially, we played against each other many years before this (around 2012 and I have pictures to prove it). We became teammates shortly after that when LCHR officially returned to the track in Charleston post-Covid. OK, now let's fast forward to the good part. Leigh approached me some time in early 2023 to help introduce her to more LGBTQ+ people in Charleston and I was happy to help... after I asked what exactly that meant. A girl needs clear directions, you know? So on we went trying to set up a dating profile for her and I began vetting potential people for her to talk to. Please don't roll your eyes. I was technically in a relationship, so I really was trying to help! In July of 2023 I, now single at this point, asked her to go to a drag show at Tin Roof because I KNEW tons of people would be there, including some friends of mine that she should meet. I will be honest, when I reached out to her the day of the drag show I expected her to change her mind and say no. To my surprise she actually wanted to go. That night was definitely memorable and I can't tell you that the show was good. I wasn't paying attention to that at all. The conversation was much more captivating. She was absolutely stunning. I believe when she sent me a message earlier that day showing me the dress she was wearing, my response was "Damn." So for the majority of our night we talked about so many things, found out we aligned on values and family, and our love of cheese... She was literally the only person in the room as far as I was concerned. By the end of the night, we both realized that this had become our first date. Note that if either of us had gone into this night thinking it was a date, we would have been very nervous and probably awkward. From that night forward we have basically been inseparable, except for that damn cruise Leigh went on in January 2024 and left me at home for 11 days. That brings us to right now. I knew we had something great very early on. The laughter, adventures, communication, and trust just continues to grow. In March we got engaged at Charles Towne Landing in front of her favorite place- the otter habitat. This was not my original plan, but Leigh is very impatient and I am bad at not being sentimental, so she guessed that I was planning to propose on our anniversary. The support, enthusiasm, love and happiness we have been shown from our families and friends has been overwhelming. We are truly lucky to have found what we have in each other. So if you are reading this, then you are one of those family and friends who has made an impact on us, loved us, supported us and encouraged us and we thank you. We are excited for our future together with our trio of chaos cats and princess CeCe. Please join us in celebrating all the conspiring the universe did to get us here.