It was the summer of 2017. I had been drilling throughout my senior year of high school, focused on preparing to ship for my initial entry training for the military. I graduated from Basic Training on August 31st and couldn't wait for AIT. It was Labor Day weekend, so they gave us a four-day holiday to celebrate with our families. The weekend was finally over and it was time to start class. With our sergeants ordering us alphabetically by last name, the letter H split the two platoons. There’s always this “summer surge” where the military trains a large influx of new recruits. The barracks that were designated for chemical soldiers were full, so I had to move all of my belongings to the barracks designated for truck drivers. It's hard to pinpoint an exact date without our phones to take any pictures or post on social media as reference to look back at for a timestamp, but it wasn't until about a week in that I noticed her. We were all showered and dressed in PTs, waiting for lights out, and there she was. She was so beautiful! Those bright brown eyes, that warm, inviting smile, and her laughs were contagious! I would always see her around after that, but never knew how to approach her. I'm fairly reserved, and our circle of friends just never really ran into each other, but I was determined to know this girl. I happened to be hanging out with a group of friends I went to Basic Training with, braiding their hair, and this new friend of theirs was just going on and on about a big crush she had on some girl named "Price". The entire time it was "Price" this, "Price" that. I was so annoyed; I mean was Price, whoever she was, really even worth all of this hype? Could we talk about something else? Maybe another week goes by and I see the same captivating girl from lights out again, but this time in OCPs, and to my surprise, the last name on the uniform... yep, you guessed it ... PRICE! At this point, it’s been about a month into training, so a few classes had graduated and freed up enough space for me in the correct barracks. This was an all-day process of packing, carrying everything to the other building, and then unpacking. We bump into each other in the hall and she asks, "Oh, so you're Coe?". Still tired and slightly aggravated from moving and confused as to how exactly she knows who I am and what exactly she knows about me, but also screaming inside that we'd finally crossed paths, I gather myself as best I could and manage to say "Yeah. Why?". She introduces herself and proceeds to tell me that she's friends with a few of my friends and was just wondering if I could braid her hair too. Of course I said yes. She continues, "well now that we're friends, I’ll speak whenever I see you. Just make sure that you speak back.".

And she kept her word. Anytime she saw me, she'd smile and say "hey friend", until one day she walked right past me and didn't say anything at all. Not even a glance in my direction! I never realized how much I anticipated our daily interactions until that very moment. Figuring that she just didn't see me, I decided to go and speak first this time. She could probably see my heart pounding out of my chest, but she just smiled softly and invited me to watch a movie with her and a couple of mutual friends. Today was the day, September 29th. I never watched Get Out and wanted to spend some extra time with her, so I jumped at the opportunity. It started with 5 other people in the room and by the end of the first scene, there was just us two left. To this day, she sticks to this story that it wasn’t planned that way, but I'm convinced otherwise. So here I am, practically on a date with this girl whom I’ve only known 2-3 weeks, but it literally felt like I had known her my whole life. If I could’ve laid my head on her shoulder or held her hand and froze time, I would have, but of course there could be no fraternization during training. The movie came to an end and it was time for lights out yet again. She asked for my phone number before we split to our separate rooms, but I was unsure on giving it out just yet, so in turn I gave her my snapchat name, only to snap her my phone number as soon as I got into my room lol. It comes time for me to braid her hair and I am a nervous wreck! Keep in mind, I dual enrolled and graduated high school with my cosmetology license, plus I had been braiding hair all summer for people throughout training. I don't know what it was about her, but what should have been a 15 minute hairstyle felt like 5 hours! What if she didn't like it? What if it didn't last? She thanked me for a job well done and invited me to lunch. We took that day to share funny stories and get to know one another. We talked about everything; our past, our dreams, our goals, etc. The closer graduation approached, the more I worried about falling for her. She was Active Duty, awaiting orders to a duty station and I was in the Guard, waiting to go back home. The possibility of how far apart we could be were endless, and I didn’t know if she’d want to try long distance dating after only knowing me such a short period of time.

A good bit of our class already received orders to Korea and I just knew that she was going to be one of them. I was anxious. I really liked her, and we had talked a lot about where our friendship would go outside of training, but this potential first long distance relationship would be a first for the both of us. She reassured me that she was just as serious about me as I was her and that she had a good feeling that she would end up state-side close to me, and she was right. Just days before graduation, her orders finally came down for Fort Stewart, GA. On November 13th, I went back to South Carolina and she was still in Missouri, over 900 miles away. It was a long 3-4 weeks before she finally got to Georgia, but I made sure that I was there to welcome her and get her settled in when she first arrived. That was December 9, 2017 and look at us now. Who would've known? Neither of us originally chose to be a "chemical soldier", we actually had different jobs in mind, but due to complications with our contracts we both ended up in that field. Her shipping out 3 weeks before me placed us in completely different battalions for Basic Training, although our buildings were right around the corner from each other. We were so close, but yet so far. Her graduating Basic Training 3-4 weeks before me should have landed her in the AIT class just before mine; she would've already shipped to her duty station halfway through my AIT class, but again, unforeseen events forced her to wait and join my class. We shouldn't have ever met, but somehow, someway, it worked out for us to do so and I could never be more grateful. It’s been such a blessing to have her in my life. I can't help but wonder sometimes what would've happened if she had been able to join original class. Would we still have met? Would we have been as close? Would we have kept in touch after leaving Fort Leonardwood? But here we are, more in love than ever before, planning the wedding of our dreams!

I took a big leap of faith and decided to go Active Duty right out of high school. I graduated Basic Training the first week of August 2017 and eagerly awaited my next phase of training. That same week, they informed me that I would have to wait 3 more weeks before I could go to class. I watched a large group of my battle buddies leave for their perspective AIT locations, but it was finally my turn just in time for a 4 day pass for Labor Day weekend. Once class started, the company was separated into platoons by last name. After class, we would all come together for meetings, or as we called them, "hot washes". I remember seeing "Coe" across the room during a hot wash in our first week of training. She walked in with her roommates and immediately caught my eye. From then on, I would always try to figure out who her battle buddies were because I wanted to meet her. She seemed like such a sweet person. When my battle buddy told me she braids hair, I started building my game plan on how to approach her. She was tricky to catch. We were in different platoons, took different classes, roomed in different buildings, and stood nowhere near each other in formation. One day I got lucky, or maybe it was fate? I see Coe walking right up to my group, speaking to her battle buddies from Basic. She had just moved into our building. I knew that this was my moment. I stopped her and said "oh, so you're Coe", as if I hadn't been asking about her for the past 2 weeks. She replied with an attitude, "uh yeah, why?". I said "I'm sorry, everyone always talks about how you braid hair and I just wanted to put a name to a face.". This time she's smiling, and says "oh okay, yeah that's me.". I knew I had said the right thing. I told her it was nice to meet her and that if I saw her around again, I would make sure to speak. She walked away, not seeming too amused by my antics, but I was motivated. I finally caught her attention.

After our first interaction, I started "bumping into" Coe every day. When I saw her, I would smile, say "hey friend" and keep it moving. This became a routine that I looked forward to. I was content with her acknowledging me, but I wanted to get to know her. I didn't want to seem pushy because I wasn't in any rush to get into anything serious, but there was something drawing me in to her. After about a week, I decided to test out my theory: if she was interested, she would notice if I didn't greet her. The next day at lunch, I'm standing in line waiting for my food when Coe pops up behind me saying, "hey friend, you didn't see me today?". I played it cool, but on the inside I was grinning ear to ear. It was a Friday, so we had free time and a weekend pass coming up. I was already making a trade with my Uno cards for the movie Get Out. There isn't much to do in AIT, especially at Fort “Lost in the Woods”, so these items were better than money lol. I invited Coe to come see the movie later that evening since a few of her battle buddies were coming too. She said yes, so I took her word for it. After I dragged my friends out of their rooms and got everything set up in the day room, I ran to the other side of the barracks to let Coe know we were ready. When I knocked on her door, she dropped her conversation and left right away to hang out. I'm not sure what happened when I left the day room, but everybody slowly started to trickle out. Before the previews were over, we were in there alone and I started to worry that it might be awkward. After all, the longest conversation we'd ever had was earlier that same day. When we began the movie, we both put our phones down and tried to catch all of the symbolism. It felt like I knew her forever. She was genuinely a nice person. After the movie, I asked for her phone number and she gave me her Snapchat... I wasn't phased, but a little disappointed that she didn't feel the same connection. Less than 3 minutes down the hall, I get a snap from Coe and it's her phone number.

We planned to hang out for lunch Saturday and fell asleep on the phone. Saturday morning, I ate breakfast, showered, put on my best PT uniform and went to meet Coe. We spent the entire day together learning about each other. From that day forward we were inseparable, always hanging out and even ended up being roommates! As time went on, I gained a best friend. By my birthday in late October, with graduation only a couple of weeks away, I knew that it was time to be realistic about our plans. I didn't know my duty station yet and she was about to return to South Carolina. I had a gut feeling that I would end up close to her, but we were more than willing to try long distance. Fate struck again and I came down on orders for Fort Stewart, GA. Coe and I were ecstatic. A few weeks later, we graduated and celebrated with our battle buddies and family members. It was tough saying goodbye, but we kept in touch everyday. It was almost like she never left. It was a long wait for my ship date, but Coe supported me the entire time. When December 8th came, I left Fort Leonardwood and the first person waiting for me in GA was none other than Coe. When I look back at our story, it was God’s plan all along. There were a lot of small details that led us to each other, nothing ever felt forced and everything always worked out on it's own. I knew since Get Out that I had found my wife, my life, and my everything. We began our love story on accident, but it was nothing but purpose that brought us together.