Hayden and I have gone to the same school since he moved to Fort Mill in the 7th grade. We graduated from Fort Mill Middle School and both started freshman year at Nation Ford High School in the fall of 2015. While we thought we didn't have a class together until our senior year, that is just not true. We were both in IBA, some sort of computer class using business applications, but never talked. I do remember his end of class presentation about parts of a computer while mine was about the history of One Direction. Fast forward to the Spring semester of senior year, where we were both in Mr. Quinlan's Precalculus class. Thank God for alphabetic seating because we ended up with seats right next to each other. Immediately, I learned that Hayden was unlike any man I'd ever met because he was kind and nice. This was practically unheard of from a high school boy, and I knew then I had a crush on him. It was a slow burn of just talking in class, being nervous for him to check my work, and praying to be placed in the same group as him for activity days. It all started to change when I finally got the guts to look him up on instagram and saw his snapchat was in his bio. I immediately added him and waited to see if he would add me back... and to no one's surprise he did AND he sent me a snapchat. This quickly turned into me trying to find anything and everything to talk to him about even if it meant triple snapping him at times. Hayden, being a clueless boy at the time, did not know that's how badly I wanted to get his attention and would leave me on read (so rude btw). At this point, I had a big, fat crush on him and even figured out his class schedule to try and run into him in the hallway (please, I know this is crazy okay!) Everything changed when one day I was on a college trip with a few friends and told one of them of the huge crush I had on Hayden Strong and how badly I wanted him to ask me to prom. I quickly learned that this friend had a class with Hayden and was going to tell him to ask me. I was mortified and begged him not to say anything, but actually thank goodness he didn't listen to me. A few days went by and my best friend, now bridesmaid, gets a text from Hayden saying he'g going to ask me to prom and where he should do it! At the time, he had no clue I was sitting right next to her and saw every text message about the plan... safe to say I ruin a lot of surprises for myself (even almost the proposal)! Long story short, he asks me to prom at Stake & Shake (my fav restaurant at the time) and we start going on dates. We held hands for the first time watching Dumbo at the movies, I met his entire family on Easter, and he went to a church hangout and met all my friends. All while we're "talking" I couldn't help but wonder when he would make it official, so I asked him one day while sitting in his car after school, and find out that Hayden already thought we were officially dating and didn't know he had to ask. I quickly told him that he needed to ask me, so we officially began dating on April 24th, 2019, with prom being that same weekend. A month later, we graduated high school and said "I love you" for the first time that same night. We spent the entire summer together (minus my one month trip to Europe and his two week long trip to Europe) before starting college. We did four years of long distance throughout college, though we saw each other practically every weekend, until we graduated. Hayden found a job in Charlotte, so I could fulfill my dream of teaching in Fort Mill. So, we moved back home and into our parent's houses for a year until June 7th, 2024 (which also happens to be the anniversary of us saying "I love you" for the first time) when we moved into our first apartment! 51 days later, on July 28th, Hayden got down on one knee, after 5 years and 3 months of being together, and asked me to marry him and I said yes! And after 6.5 years together on October 26, 2025 we will finally be married!