I met Aaron in 2012 when we served together on the InterVarsity leadership team (we really loved being student leaders). During one of our meetings, we did an “honesty circle” (long story lol), and as the newest leaders, we were completely lost. Afterward, we walked back to our dorms together, debriefing the meeting (we still debrief everything lol). That conversation was the start of our friendship, and for years, we were locked in—he was my best friend. Fast forward, and we started developing feelings for each other, which led to a much-needed DTR (Define the Relationship) conversation (IYKYK). Sitting in his car outside Kilcawley (a campus building at YSU), I found the courage to tell him I liked him as more than a friend. And then… nothing. We didn’t revisit that conversation for over a year! After I graduated, Aaron finally opened up about his feelings, completely surprising me—mainly because I thought that ship had sailed (even though my feelings never really left). And I was like, “So… whatchu tryna do?” (jk). We started dating shortly after, and whewwww—what a learning curve. If you’ve ever dated your best friend, you know! We were young, trying to mature, grow in Christ, navigate new cities (Columbus for me, Cleveland for him), develop emotional intelligence, and build our adult lives. A year in, we broke up (2017). I was in Columbus, thriving and growing—honestly, some of my best years as an adult. But through it all, I prayed for Aaron and constantly laid my feelings for him before the Lord. He was the only man I had ever loved. In 2019, we reconnected—just as friends (they always come back lol). Then, in 2020, I decided to take a risk and move to Cleveland. And let me clear the air—I moved 30% because I wanted to nurture some of the key friendships I had built in college before heading back home to Texas (at that point, I had been in Ohio way too long… and I’m still here, smh). But the other 70%? I missed Aaron and wanted to see if we had another shot at love, now that we had both grown. And uhm… ya girl got him! (Issa Rae voice). This man has been my best friend since I was 19, and I am so honored to become Aaron’s wife.

I met Kadrian during my sophomore year in college and when our paths crossed in campus ministry, our personalities clicked almost right away. We started to spend almost every day together and quickly became inseparable. We even got our passports together. I graduated in 2014, relocated to Cleveland for work and we kept up our relationship until we didn’t know how to love each other anymore as just best friends. We tried dating in 2016 and made it about a good year. We had learned some hard lessons but we also did stuff like driving to Canada for the afternoon so Kay could see Niagara Falls. We still move like that today, just tend to travel further. We spent a couple years apart and when she moved from Columbus to Cleveland, where I was, around the corner from my house, I knew what was up. In a lot of ways I got the blessing of getting to know Kadrian all over again and we still clicked like the first time we met. The foundation we had was undeniable and it wasn’t hard to want to spend all my time with her now that she was here. Once we started dating again we really took off and didn’t look back. The Story of Our Love leads us up to this point and I’m blessed to write the rest with her.