Our happy ever after.

If you didn’t already know, Conner and I both shot trap in high school. He shot for Bartlett High School, and I shot for Fayette Academy. Even though we had never officially met, we had several mutual friends and followed each other on social media for a while before we ever spoke in person. On May 7, 2022, we both competed in a trap tournament at the Memphis Sport Shooting Association. We were both extremely competitive, and most of the time, that competitiveness paid off. Conner had been winning HOA (Highest Overall) for months by consistently shooting perfect scores of 100/100. To be honest, I didn’t appreciate it very much at the time… mostly because it meant he kept beating me. That particular day was no different. Conner shot another perfect 100/100, while I shot a 96/100. Once again, he beat me. Later that afternoon, I was standing around talking with some friends when Conner got brought up in conversation. I remember saying, “Where is he? I want to meet him.” To my surprise, he just happened to be walking up after fishing at the pond nearby. We talked for a little while, nothing too serious, but I definitely remember wanting to intimidate him just enough so maybe he would stop beating me in competitions. Spoiler alert: it didn’t work. He continued to beat me. At the end of the day, we went our separate ways, and I honestly didn’t think much would come from that brief conversation. But later, I realized we were already friends on Snapchat, so we started snapping back and forth. One conversation turned into another, and before long, somehow, he ended up coming to my church’s Sunday School fish fry. That night, my sister made a comment that I’ll never forget. She looked at me and said, “It was love at first sight, and you’re going to marry him.” At the time, I laughed it off… but she may have been onto something. A couple of weeks later, on May 22, 2022, I went to Conner’s house for his graduation party and met his entire family. Needless to say, I was terrified. But somehow, it all worked out. Later that evening, we went fishing together. As the sun started to set and the day slowed down, he asked me to be his girlfriend. Of course, I said yes. We sealed it with our very first kiss, and from that moment on, the rest was history. What started as two competitive trap shooters trying to outshoot each other somehow turned into the greatest love story I could have ever asked for.