I was living in Scottsbluff just hanging out. I had a couple friends and did not do much dating. I had a Tinder account and swiped through the small town just for fun, never messaging anyone first if I happened to match with a girl. I matched with Emilee because she had a cute picture or two and I recognized a couple of people in her photos from around town. I never planned on actually messaging her until she sent me one first. We talked for a few weeks, the conversation came to what I thought was an ok conclusion, and Emilee stopped responding. I did not think much of it; just a classic Tinder match/conversation. Sometime later Emilee messaged me again feeding me some line about being too busy with teaching to be able to message me. I stepped out of my comfort zone and asked her to meet for lunch and the rest is history. My favorite memory of getting to know her is the round of golf on our second date before which I could not have been more nervous golfing with what I thought (and still think is true) was a golf pro. A bowling date, supper during a power outage, and a dinner date at my place later, and I had a new favorite person to hang out with in Scottsbluff.

It was April 2020 in Western Nebraska. My best friends and I were at someone's house, and we were swiping through each other's Tinder accounts. I had Tinder purely for the swiping entertainment. My friends got ahold of mine and found Dan's profile. One of my friends worked with Dan at Western Sugar and a couple of them had played YMCA volleyball against him. Their words were: "Dan's a nice guy. You have to swipe right on him." I didn't think anything of matching with Dan until my friends asked me later how things were going with him. I couldn't believe they were actually taking this seriously, but I fell to the peer pressure and sent Dan a message. We talked for a few days, I got bored with Tinder and ghosted Dan for two weeks, then my friends asked me about him again, so I went back to Tinder. Dan and I started talking again, he asked me out, we played the most important round of golf of Dan's life, and the rest is history!