Brandon John Schultz... Jenny's first crush. cue: "Crush" by David Archuleta It all started at Green Hills Elementary School in our hometown. Brandon was a grade above me and in the same circle of friends as my brother, Jack. Like most girls our age, I thought Brandon was the ultimate hottie. Athletic and super smart, he was quite the catch (especially with the blonde Bieber hair). Known throughout the school as "Little Luff", I knew Brandon was too cool for me. But things started to change during our school play, Wrangler Ranch. Late night texts became a regular as I hid my phone from my parents when they came to say goodnight. Talking about our life goals and dreams made me think he just MAY "like like" me. He called me Blondie, and I called him surfer dude. We planned on opening "Brandon and Blondie's Surf Shack" one day. The Green Township boys played manhunt at my house, and Brandon and I would sneak off and lay on the back hill looking at the stars. It was everything a girl could imagine her 1st crush to be.

“Jenny is AMAZZZINGG and totally NOT obnoxious Luff” This is how Jenny put her contact info in my phone when I was in 8th grade and she was in 7th. We both remember staying up late at night texting and hiding our phones whenever our parents came knocking. Jenny gave me confidence from a young age. It all started with the confidence to be the lead role in the middle school play and as you can imagine I had no right being on that stage, but she encouraged me every day. Little did I know, even though she was already aware of it, that was the beginning of our forever. Next came high school. Jenny was the nerdy blonde girl. We always talked, but not as much as we would have liked. For her 9th grade confirmation, I wrote her a letter and told her she would always be my girl; now she knew I was secretly crazy about her. I was starting to realize she was more than the cute 7th grader that I used to stay up talking to. It seemed to happen overnight, but that cute nerdy blonde girl became the beautiful outgoing blondie that everyone wanted to date. I knew I would get my chance, but the timing wasn’t right yet. I would settle for us sleeping in my varsity jacket on the floor at a friend’s house.

Fast forward to Brandon's freshmen year at the United States Naval Academy. More specifically, it was a Christmas party back home at the best man’s house. That was the first night Jenny and Brandon kissed. The sparks were flying. She eventually caved and went to visit the Naval Academy and their first official date was the International Ball. She looked beautiful. He still remembers that dress and how far she was out of his league: cue "She’s So High” by Tal Bachman. They spent most of their time while Brandon was at the Naval Academy together, but then they both had some growing up to do to. Jenny started her professional career and Brandon moved to California for training. In 2019 Brandon moved back to the East Coast, and on a walk Jen asked Brandon what he wanted in his life; "I want to be with you." He wasn’t home more than 2 weeks before they got back together. After time apart they realized just how important they were to each other and were so excited to spend time together again. A month in, Brandon had to go away for over 3 months on military orders. Not exactly how you want to restart a relationship. Love kept them strong and he was back home by the end of summer. Jenny went to visit Virginia Beach a few times before the distance between them became unnecessary. Naturally they started talking about buying a house together and stumbled upon the perfect one December of 2019. They felt like they had really started their lives, but there was still one thing missing. Jenny didn’t know it until later, but Brandon had planned on proposing to her for over 6 months. Finally, the day before his birthday when she would least expect it, he did. Brandon convinced her they needed pictures for their new home and that a Valentine’s Day photo shoot was the answer. PSYCH! She was so excited that she blacked out and didn't respond right away. Just kidding! Kind of. They were the longest few seconds of his life, but it was worth it because now they have forever together.