Emerson and I met at a leadership group in our church’s student ministry in February 2020. We were flirtatious from the beginning and there was no confusion, we weren’t going to be “just friends”. I was a sophomore and he was a junior. We would hangout with our friends from church and text all of the time! Our fist date was to the fair at Lee Civic Center. We did not ride a ride or eat a bite of food; we walked around and talked for 5 hours and then spent 3 hours standing talking in my driveway (I did not kiss him on the first date, lol). The following Monday I left for my schools annual retreat called “unplugged”. I managed to find a land line behind a building and used it to call Emerson every evening, talk about old fashioned! The day I arrived home he picked me up and took me to Fort Myers Beach for the sunset. I was so content talking to him, he was intelligent, compassionate, funny, kind and with everything he said I could see his love for Jesus. That night I began allowing myself to imagine what this could become. Emerson picked me up for the sunrise on March 19, 2020. It was the last day before the beaches were shut down due to Covid. We walked the beach and he asked me to be his girlfriend, I said an enthusiastic Yes! We strolled down the Fort Myers Pier, sat on a bench facing the ocean. We prayed over our new relationship, each other, our future, and that we would honor God with our lives together. We then drove to Captiva Island and had our first kiss in a very special location we found in a cove.