We met as family friends when we were both young, and it stayed that way until college (Much to my chagrin). We reconnected when Eve invited me to a bible study. Unfortunately, I was trapped in solitary confinement (Covid isolation). Eve, in her kindness, sent me a get well package. Determined to avoid the friend zone, I pronounced how indebted I was to her, and that the only way for me to pay the debt was to take her ice-skating. The rest is history.

Our monumental meeting happened the summer before freshmen year of high school. Cole and I met at a family friend’s house. I remember locking eyes across the table and watching a movie shoulder-to-shoulder on the crowded basement couch. Besides the occasional homeschool graduation and Avengers movie in theaters, this was the only story I had to tell about Cole Phillips for a long time. Throughout high school and our first year of college we saw each other intermittently, I started volunteering at a Naval Academy campus ministry and our run-ins became more frequent. After growing up in Annapolis, I had sworn off the military-clad men that walk main street. I made this sentiment known to my Midshipmen friends, and Cole was no exception. Despite my best efforts, this perspective didn't last long. I invited Cole to Bible study before he informed me of his sudden and probably deadly sickness (COVID) that had him bedridden. In my uninterested and just-being-a-good-friend manner I did what anyone would do and dropped off a care package. Maybe it was the incredibly subtle hints or the package itself, but Cole and I went out for coffee a week later.