Many people are skeptical of online dating apps (as they should be, it's rough out there), but one night, in the midst of MANY left swipes, I stumbled upon the love of my life. After a week of talking, I asked Lauren on a VERY romantic first date to a halloween party at Shots in Downtown Orlando. I was late, of course, and the first thing I did was order a shot of tequila (Lauren swears to this day I cat-fished her as a party girl). The night consisted of night clubs, flooded bathrooms, and LOTS of tequila. Clearly, I am an expert at romantic first dates, so it came as no surprise to me that we basically haven’t left each others side since that night. Although, the night was not as romantic as it could have been, it was a beautiful and magical start to forever. I remember telling a friend about a week later that this was the girl I was going to marry. And here we are. I cannot wait to spend forever and ever with you, Lauren. I love you heap tons.

The night we met, Kaitlin and I kept asking each other, “where did you come from?” It was a joke at first. I’d answer, “Lakeland” or she’d say “my car.” But, really, neither of us were joking. We weren’t expecting anything serious - just someone to give us some attention and right from the start we knew we in for way more than that. It all felt big - big emotions, big future, big time into each other. After a first date filled with many adventures, we were inseparable. I was trekking across central Florida daily and she was making random trips to Saint Petersburg in the middle of the night. Still asking all the time, “where did you come from?” There’s too many theories to name about why people fall in love or how soulmates come together. My favorite is that somewhere, sometime when the universe began and the elements were colliding, scattering across the cosmos - Kaitlin and I must have some atoms that come from the same exploding star. Maybe we didn’t come from anywhere, maybe we were just always there.