You could say Instagram and Facebook played matchmaker for us. Derrick and I messaged back and forth for almost a year before finally meeting in person in November 2019. From our very first phone call, I knew there was something about him—he was different. Special. Of course, life being life, it wasn’t smooth sailing at first. We texted every day, talked every week, but only managed to see each other a handful of times before February 2020 rolled around. That’s when Derrick laid it all out: he wasn’t looking for a “hangout buddy.” He wanted something real. Just as we started finding our groove, the pandemic hit. I was living in Columbus, Ohio, and Derrick was in Liberty Township, Ohio—two hours apart. When everything shut down, I said to him, "I don't have any family here in Columbus and I don't want to spend a two week shutdown alone." Of course, Derrick, the amazing man that he is invited me to stay with him “until things got back to normal.” We both thought it’d be two weeks tops. Well… those two weeks turned into five years. You guessed it, I never left. Since then, we’ve shared laughter, challenges, new adventures, and countless late-night talks. Through it all, our love has grown into something better than either of us could have imagined. And now, we’re excited to turn the page and start the next part of our story—together, forever.