I remember the first time meeting Jake, it was a Sunday after church. I remember him being chatty, as I know now, that’s just Jake. We knew of each other, but nothing more. (Except for Jake stalking my social media and showing his friends “how cute I was”). On the other hand I completely forgot about him. It wasn’t until over a year later in the midst of the pandemic only by fate we hung out for the first time. September 5th, 2020 — it was my 22nd birthday. I had a couple of friends over, we bought a few bottles of wine, and threw some cheese on a board. It was simple and small in the midst of a crazy year. At the time Jake was working with one of our mutual friends Josh, who was one of the few friends at my house celebrating. Jake called him seeing if he wanted to go skateboarding and all of us in our tipsy state told him he had to come over. Excited to hang out with the cute girl from Instagram, he later told me that on his way to my house he knew he was going to fall for me — and he was right. I just so happened to be the only sober one at my birthday when he arrived. It was the best night - the best birthday. We talked for hours it felt like while our friends were being silly and having fun. They all slept over and one night turned into the whole weekend. He managed to get my number and we texted for the next week or two while I went on vacation. I remember my dad asking me why I was smiling at my phone so much. As soon as I got back from vacation he invited me to come swim at his house after work. From that night on we started hanging out everyday and were inseparable. Through highs and lows this relationship has been the most consistent thing in both of our lives and we're so grateful that we have each other. Our story hasn't been perfect but we wouldn't change it one bit. Since we met we have grown individually as well as with each other. We've now been together for almost 2 years, and cannot wait to spend the rest of our lives together growing and learning. Thank you for helping celebrate our love we are so excited for you to be apart of it.