In December of 2020, I went home for Christmas break. During this time, a freshly single Morgan decided it would be an adventure to download a dating app and see what it was all about. Oh, and an adventure it was indeed! I added a few new friends on Snapchat, including Jay, and got to know them for a few days. Eventually, I lost touch with them during Christmas and returned to school. School didn't last long with the start of Covid, and I ended up going home for 5 months while school was shut down. In August of 2020, I moved back to San Marcos. Two or so days after moving back to school, I kept thinking about that Jay kid and wondered what he was up to. I got on Snapchat and saw he had posted recently. This was my chance to talk to him again! I slid up on his story and that got the ball rolling. After texting again after a day or so, Jay asked me on a date! We decided to go to the river because he knew of a good spot. I remember being so nervous before he came to get me because we hadn't met in person yet. I even told my mom and roommate at the time to check my location all day in case he kidnapped me. After a lot of excited/nervous pacing in my apartment, I got the text he was downstairs. He had brought so many snacks and drinks, opened my door for me, let me be on AUX in the car, and paid for the whole day. What I thought would be a 2-hour river trip became 8 hours. We talked the entire time and never ran out of things to talk about. After the best date ever, he took me to Taco Bell, and then to his apartment to meet his roommates and lifelong friends. Later that evening, he took me back to my place and dropped me off. I was pinching myself all night because I thought there is no way that 1, love at first sight was real, and 2, that it could be that easy! Apparently, Jay felt the same way because I found out many months later, that he went home after our first date and told his roommates that he was going to marry me someday. The rest is history!

There are 2 different times Jay said "I love you" that I count as the first time. The first one was kind of an accident. From the time Jay and I first met, we started traveling together. One of our first trips was to South Padre Island with his mom. Momma J and I talked on the balcony for several hours and Jay stayed inside to give us a chance to get to know each other. He eventually came outside to ask us if we'd like him to pick us up food, and of course, we did. As he headed out the door to grab food, he said "Okay, I love y'all!" Momma J and I looked right at each other a little surprised as the door closed behind him. Momma J asked me if he had ever said that to me before and I laughed and said no, I think that was an accident. We didn't talk about that tad awkward encounter for months and when we finally did, he said it slipped out because he knew he was in love with me already at that point, but he hadn't planned on telling me yet. Little did he know, I was already in love with him too. The second time he said it was actually when he asked me to officially be his girlfriend. We were having a heart-to-heart about life, and he began telling me that he loved me for the person I am. That kind of snowballed into him telling me he was in love with me and had been in love with me since our first date, which lead me to finally tell him that I had been in love with him since our first date too!