We're Getting Married

Going back to University of Georgia in August of 2020 felt nothing like the college experience I had imagined. Campus was partially closed, most classes were online, and everything carried that strange, quiet tension of COVID. It was a season of distance — but somehow, it’s also where my favorite story began. In high school, I played tennis — not professional tennis, just for joy of hitting with friends. One afternoon in late August, I drove to the Intramural Fields (a big complex with hiking trails, sports fields, tennis courts, and where the Redcoat Band practices) to hit on the backboard. Apparently, everyone else had the same idea to cure their pandemic boredom, because every single court was full. So I waited outside the fence for an open one. That’s when two guys — Josh and Dylan — who looked slightly older than me and, if I’m honest, not particularly skilled at tennis, asked if I wanted to join them and I immediately said yes. What I didn’t expect was how much fun I would have — or how hard it would be to keep a straight face while quietly winning most of the points (Josh had only been playing a few weeks, after all). After about an hour, they added me to their GroupMe where they organized games with others during the week. Over the next few weeks, tennis turned into friendship. Friendship turned into dinners, Nintendo nights, and somehow even paintball... What started as random court partners became some of my closest college friends. And somewhere around November, I developed a BIG crush on the quiet, slightly mysterious tennis guy named Josh. There seemed to be more to him than tennis, riding his moped around campus, and going to CrossFit. He was steady. Thoughtful. Calm. After Christmas break, we were hanging out one afternoon when we realized two of the couples in our little tennis group had started dating — and somehow we were the only two left. I waited a solid month and a half for him to ask me on a date. It felt like a year. But when he finally did, everything unfolded so naturally. Our first date led to deeper friendship, which led to something steady and sure. With Josh, it was easy. His patience brought a calmness to my heart that I didn’t even know I needed. A lot has happened since that day at the tennis courts and what started during one of the strangest seasons of life became the greatest gift 🎾