Let me take you on a journey. It was the spring of 2004 and it was the perfect day on the playground of Ames Chritian Preschool. The sky was slightly overcast but the sun could be seen poking its head through the clouds. While it was still cool enough for a jacket, the temperature was just right to enjoy the outdoors. Little did I know my life was about to be turned upside down. As I look up from the wood chip pile I am working on I get a glimpse at something special, A light so bright it was as if we were on the surface of the sun. Anna Napolitano my rock, my lightning, and my thunder. For what felt like eternity we stood, facing each other as if we were alone on that playground. From that point on I knew, Shes was the one. Not really. While we did attend the same preschool, the fire I have for Anna did not begin until the 6th grade. She may not have even known I existed that did not stop me. I began my efforts to win her friendship and in the end, her affection. Through this process I found myself in the no man's land of relationships known as … the friendzone. Once again, not discouraged by my repeated failures I pushed forward. My next opportunity arose in 8th grade. I had decided to not take algebra in 8th grade (advancing a year) because of my lack of interest in the subject but then I learned new information. Anna’s mother ran into me at a band concert and inquired about my decision to do algebra. As soon as I heard Anna was taking algebra I immediately called my mother and told her to bring the forms to school so I could fill them out and join algebra. I could have never hoped it would have gone as well as it did. Just by chance she was seated next to me in class and our acquaintanceship turned to real friendship.

While you may think I was able to turn that friendship into something more, my efforts went in vain. Through the beginnings of highschool, while our friendship remained, I began to lose hope that she would ever see me the way I saw her. I lost my drive, and began to think I would never get her. Then came junior year. The year that would change everything. Fall of 2016 I found myself hanging out with a new group of people. The first time we were all together I was shocked at my luck, the one and the only Anna Napolitano was there. I knew this was my chance. My eyes were set on the homecoming dance and my plan was set in motion. Over the next few months I truly got to know a side of Anna that just made me fall for her even more than I thought possible. Then came the decision. I finally worked up the nerve and did what I should have at every previous school dance, I asked Anna. She said yes and we had the most wonderful night! After homecoming my feelings for her clouded any other thought for 3 months. We began to grow closer and I could feel her falling for me and the 6th grade boy in me was over the moon with excitement. Eventually, after wearing her down even more for the following weeks I felt like it was time for me to ask her out. The night of October 21st 2016 will live in infamy as the day that Garrett Cooper broke out of the friend zone and found out how to get Anna Napolitano to date the same boy who had a crush on her for 6 years to no avail. I sat in her car for what felt like 6 hours working up the nerve to pop the question. Infact by the time I finally asked if she wanted to be my girlfriend and her saying yes it had already passed midnight making it October 22nd. From that day on, we were a path that could not be stopped. I knew I was going to marry this girl and she was everything I ever dreamed of.

Throughout junior and senior year our love blossomed into something that rivaled Romeo and Juliet (minus the death). Through hundreds of movie nights and thousands of wings from buffalo wild wings we grew deeper in love finding out more about her just made me love her more. Our greatest test would come after our senior year in the form of me leaving Ames for 8 months to join the Air Force. Some of the hardest obstacles of our relationship came from this distance but as it came time for me to come home we were only stronger than when I had left. Well before this I had been plotting my chance to marry her and now it was time to put that plan in motion. In February of 2020 I secured a ring and began plotting the perfect proposal. It took about a week to plan and the actual proposal only took about 10 minutes to do. She said yes and the rest is history. It’s time for that weird 6th grade kid who always wanted to date a girl way out of his league to ride off into the sunset and start a life with the girl of his dreams.