The First Night: The first night that we spoke over the phone, we gave so much of overselves to each other. Lying on the floor of my sisters bedroom, we talked until the sun came up. The last words that we uttered to each other were “I love you”. The Notebook: When we were in highschool, neither of us were openly gay. My (Demetrius) father was a Pastor and his (Dakota) family was also deeply firm in their religous beliefs. We also didn’t attend the same school. We had to come up with new and inventive ways to communicate and nurture our young love. My freshman year, I attended school with one of Dakota’s younger sisters (Ashley). I decided that I’d write him a letter (in a spiral notebook), and send it home with his sister. He read my letter, responded (in the same notebook), and sent it back to my school with his sister. We did this daily. It became our tradition. It was then that I realized, absolutly nothing could keep us apart. Whatever the obstacle, we would find a way to overcome... and we did! Nearly 15 years ago, we met. We were only 15 years old, but we instantly knew that we wanted to spend our lives together. We were highschool sweethearts. Through the years, life has pulled us in many different directions, but our love and connection has remained unbreakable.