A big day get away in Montego Bay, Jamaica

We first met in 2010 in Junior High. DeAndre recently moved to the suburbs of Cincinnati where the innocent love story would begin without our knowledge. It all started simply as a childhood crush. There was no denying the interest we had for one another, it was mutual from the jump. We just needed some time. Although we flirted throughout high school and worked on projects together, or fought to write about the same author, we never became what people call high school sweethearts. In 2015, we graduated high school and left the comfort of the suburbs for the college experience. We lost touch with one another until 2018. Through social media, we began to communicate again about an experience we both had in common, study abroad. At the time I was in Italy for a semester and DeAndre was two weeks away from leaving for Jamaica for a service learning trip. This was the thread that reconnected us and as we continued to talk many truths unraveled as we began to realize all the ways our individual lives had intertwined throughout history. There were a plethora of details we never took the time to learn about one another in the past. We learned both of our families were from Hamilton and following this thread we found out DeAndre's grandmother graduated from Badin the same year as my aunt and uncle. Without even knowing the commonalities of our stories, we were drawn to one another. We just needed some time. So, do these small coincidences mean we're destined to be together? I don't know, but it is the starting block from which we will commit our lives to become one under the power and presence of the Lord, our Savior, Jesus Christ.