In 2021, while the world was still navigating life during Covid, our story began with a simple online conversation. Josh was starting his adult life while working in Palm Springs, California, and I was a new nurse beginning my career at my local hospital in New Mexico. What started as casual messages quickly turned into something we both looked forward to every day. A few months later, we decided to meet in person for the first time in Phoenix, Arizona. I was already there for my little sister’s basketball tournament and had one free evening for a date with Josh. At the time, I actually thought he lived in Tempe because of his social media posts — I had no idea he was driving in from Palm Springs just to see me. Josh got off work late that day and made the 4 hour trip to Phoenix on a whim. When he arrived at my hotel, he was wearing a worn t-shirt and work jeans, looking like he had rushed straight from work and grabbed the first clothes he could find. Meanwhile, I was dressed up in a pretty dress and heels, immediately feeling overdressed and slightly embarrassed. We laughed it off, drove to his hotel in Tempe so he could change, and headed out for dinner. At first, Josh was incredibly quiet, and I was convinced he wasn’t romantically interested in me. So instead of trying so hard to impress him, I relaxed and just started being myself, thinking maybe we’d simply become good friends. Ironically, that’s when everything changed. Later that night, we were invited to hang out with some friends down the street. Standing in line outside, we held hands for the very first time — and from that moment on, we were inseparable. The next day, we spent every minute together, and Josh unexpectedly got introduced to my family almost immediately. From there, our relationship grew quickly: from seeing each other once a month, to every other weekend, to every single weekend. Eventually, the distance between California and New Mexico became too hard, so I took a leap of faith and moved to California. Now we call Arizona home. What started as a chance meeting during an uncertain time became the greatest adventure of our lives — and now we can’t wait to begin this next chapter together.