When my best friend, Summer, moved to Louisiana towards the end of the school year, I found myself alone at a high school freshmen leadership club I decidedly despised. I was desperate to not be the loser sitting alone at dinnertime, and so I frantically looked around for anyone I might recognize. I vaguely knew of Jeff, since he was in my science class at school. So, I decided to sit down and test the waters. I don't remember much of the interaction, other than he didn't seem to mind me, laughed at my jokes, and was pretty funny. I no longer had to awkwardly sit alone or with a group of strangers (phew), and I had someone to scrub the walls of the Boys & Girls Club with. While scrubbing the walls there, I remember thinking to myself, "I seriously have not gotten along with someone this easily ever." The leadership club ended for the year, and I figured I would only see Jeff again in passing. The next year, I was reviewing my high school schedule with my friends, and to my horror, there was one class where I didn't know anyone -- World Lit. As you can imagine, this was a high schooler's worst nightmare. I had specifically curated my schedule so this didn't happen. And yet, it did. So, I went to my World Lit class bracing myself for awkward small talk (between teenagers -- brutal). I entered the classroom, and, even worse, the whiteboard ominously requested we pick our own seats. I scanned the room in one last Hail Mary, and sure enough, there was Jeff. From there, we became fast friends. I knew I liked the guy immensely from the start. He was funny as all could get, a great student (very important; I ain't dating no dummy), and wholly undisturbed by daily stressors. And, not to brag, but we ran that class. Eventually, Jeff asked for my number, and then I asked for his Kik. At the end of the year, I planned to fulfill an inside joke we had; he insisted Hardee's was the absolute worst food chain. Since I lived quite literally twenty feet behind one, I strongly disagreed. As an homage to this, I got him a strawberry milkshake from Hardee’s. This was the first time I ever approached him outside of class or in front of all of his friends. It was a nerve-wracking experience, but one I remember fondly. To me, it marked an inexplicable shift in our relationship. Prior, we had just been friends. And afterwards, it felt as though there was the potential to be something more. Plus, it’s very on brand for such a shift to be marked by a fast food milkshake. That summer, Jeff had just gotten his license, and so we got to go on a ton of nonsensical adventures before I gathered the courage to ask him out. Just saying, if you notice the trend of my making the first move like a baddie, you wouldn't be wrong. I asked him out over text on August 9th, which not-so-coincidentally is the day of our wedding! On our first official date, we saw the Emoji Movie where he gave me an emoji-themed fidget spinner (powerful aura for a first date). And, that began our over seven year saga together. Every moment since, I have had the opportunity to see how kind, gentle, understanding, funny, comforting, patient, and focused this guy can be. Over the years, there have been so many amazing memories that we have shared together. Even in the darker moments, Jeff has been my unwavering support. One such instance was when my grandfather was dying three years ago. Jeff came down to Chicago with me, and we visited Grandpa on what would be his last days. It was so valuable to have my partner with me in the midst of such sadness. While I visited, my Grandpa continued to refer to Jeff as “your husband”. I believe my grandpa saw then what I know now – that Jeff has been and will always be my soul mate.

All throughout my grade school years I was a quiet person. I never went out of my way to speak up in class, I made friends with the other quiet kids who lived on the internet, and I never really had any ambition because of it. Knowing that I would have to get into college eventually, my freshman year of high school I began trying to take part in extracurriculars to pad out my resume. One such program was a leadership group that in actuality was a front for free student labor. Being a quiet kid, I just did the work I needed for this program and went home. This went on for weeks, until for whatever reason, a girl approached me while I was eating lunch alone and asked to sit by me. In typical Jeff fashion, I said a few words and that was it. Then, to my surprise, next week, she sat by me again, and I said a couple more words. This repeated itself until eventually we became tentative friends, bonding over our shared disinterest in the program and distain for the manual labor they volunteered us for. Despite the fun we had together, the program needed to come to an end, and with me being myself, I quietly said goodbye to my new friend and went on my way, hoping in some way that we would run into each other again. Come next school year, fate presented another opportunity for our friendship to continue to grow. I went to my world literature class and much to my surprise, in walked none other than the nice girl from the stupid labor program. As the weeks went on and we got to know each other more and more, I found myself trying to plot ways to spend more time with her, whether it be a group assignments or arranging shared class schedules down the road. I found myself wanting this so badly that I bought my first smartphone that year to be able to ask this girl for her snapchat and text her outside of class. For once I had found something that made me want to speak up. What I found in my new friend was a type of person I had never run into before. Someone who was willing to goof off with me in class while also being one of the smartest and most detail oriented person in said class (even with me being a major distraction).I soon decided I wanted to be able to talk to this girl outside of school, and with that I bought my first smartphone. It turned out to be a spendy purchase too, as all of my initial phone plans were paid for by minutes of service. I always had to purchase at least two months of data to try to accommodate the amount of texts me and Hannah shared. My purchases paid off, as I was able to talk with my friend daily over the course of summer vacation. It was towards the end of that first summer that Hannah built up the courage to tell me she liked me. In return, I offered to take her to see the emoji movie (a humble exchange). The rest is history. Obviously, over the course of our soon to be 8 year journey, we've gone through many drastic life changes together, be that college, familial milestones and losses, too many moves to count, and now the culmination of it all, our wedding. This wedding has been a long time coming, and luckily my fiancé was kind enough to deal with all the dilly-dallying for so long. I cannot wait to share this moment with everyone, but mostly I just can't wait to be further connected with the insanely patient and crazy beautiful girl who didn't give up on the lonesome quiet guy. I am so excited to see what the next years bring to us and what other life changes we get to experience together in our future.