Me and Erik first met in February 26th 2020 through Facebook dating, we decided to have our first date in a small and cozy coffee shop called Intelligentsia. Our date went on for so long, we ended up eating dinner at Giordano's, driving to Navy Pier (even though we didn't know it would be closed) and then finished our night at The Starbucks Reserve. Before the night ended, he offered to drive me home but we had to go pick up his car at his apartment. I offered to help clean off the snow on the car and he asked me if he could give me a thank you kiss-- this was our first kiss. We fell in love deeply and when he told me he was moving to Seattle, I knew I wanted to go with him. We spent a year in Seattle where we went through the hardships of COVID, being without family and relying on each other to forget about how scary the pandemic was. We then decided to come back to Chicago where we have now lived for the past 4 years where we got to be closer to family and friends. We have gone through so many trials and through all of them we have conquered life and grown as a couple in beautiful ways, and we both can't wait to get married and one day, have a family of our own who will know the value of honesty, empathy, love and hard-work.