We met as team-mates on a popular online video game and despite me not being a very outgoing person online, I made the choice to chat with my team. Nathan and I hit it off and I shared my snapchat so we could continue to chat away from the computer. Even though he ghosted me for a week after he broke his phone, I soon began to trust him enough to give him my phone number. A few short months of constant texts and calls later, I asked him to be my boyfriend and the rest is history! -Melissa

Being in a long distance relationship is hard but we managed to make the best of it. After 7 months together we finally had the opportunity to meet in person. I flew to Los Angeles California to meet Nathan and a few of his family members for Thanksgiving. I remember the moment I stepped out of the airport and he pulled his jeep up I felt at home with him. Of course we had our awkward first physical moments: a first kiss, holding hands and cuddling in a movie but it felt so good to actually be there with him. It was so amazing it had me ugly crying in a Wendy's on the day I had to leave. Fortunately I knew it wasn't a good-bye, but a see you later and Nathan made good on our promise to meet again when he came to visit me and my family for Christmas that winter. -Melissa

Though there were other factors that led to me ultimately moving to Ohio permanently, our desire to move to the next step in the relationship was the biggest one. Like with everything in my life that was ever meant to be, all of the puzzle pieces fell into place with ease. Finding a moving service for my belongings, affordable plane tickets, and most of all, Melissa's excitement about moving in together, made one of the most difficult decisions in my life a very easy choice. I was leaving everything and (just about) everyone I knew to start a new chapter, in a completely different world than the one I knew--and not just because COVID restrictions were put into place the same week we landed in Cincinnati. Slowly, but surely, we have grown together, made "Melissa's house" into OUR home, and started a family with our pets. 2 years later feels like two weeks. That first trip to the new grocery store is now a routine. All the routes that I struggled to remember are now muscle memory. Most importantly, my then (relatively) new girlfriend, is now my fiancée, and soon-to-be wife. She helped make all of this the new "everything I know," and I could not have asked for anything to have gone differently. From here on out, home will be wherever we are, together. -Nathan