I met Steven one or two times when I was a senior in high school. Steven had an acquaintance, Josh, who lived near him, and Josh was dating my friend Cassie. Cassie, Josh, and I would walk around the neighborhood to get snacks at the corner store on our way to Cassie's house. A few times I noticed this guy, who I thought was cute, but he was younger than me, didn’t go to the same school as us even though we were zoned for the same school. He was also in ROTC and Band. I was in Dance and Theatre, so me dating a younger guy in the school band was not my "cup of tea". One day Josh called Steven over and we said hello. I remember meeting him and thinking “oh he's so cute but such a dork” and that was pretty much all I thought about him. We exchanged social media, and other than liking each other's photos, we had not talked much since then especially since he didn't really do social media much. When I graduated from university in 2018, I moved home. That fall I saw through a social media app that Steven had joined the Navy and was in Chicago. I thought he was super cute, but we were just friends and were dating other people - plus I had been dating someone anyway as was Steven. So we just remained friends but got to know each other better through texting.

I broke up with the guy I was dating, and Steven and I were still friends. He would always ask me to hang out, and I would always say “No, I'm working so can't". This went on for a while and we remained friends who just talked about life. One day he asked me to hang out again, and, before I could say no he said, "It's just lunch". We went on our first date to Luby’s and had a casual conversation - you know the usual, what's your religion? why do you believe that? what are your political views!? do you like Disney? sort of thing. This was on a Tuesday - he asked me if we could hang out the next day, and I said: “The only way that will happen is if you go to church with me because that's where I will be on Wednesday nights”. Ya’ll - even that didn't scare him off. He had dinner with my family and then went to church with us. Everyone at church noticed this sweet boy that I brought with me (I have never brought boys around my family/church family so they knew this was serious). We kept hanging out, just getting to know each other better, until one day in the middle of dinner Steven asked me if I wanted to go steady. I told him that I want to only date with the intention of someday being married and that If he wasn't looking for that I was not the girl for him. All cards on the table, I jokingly said “Okay but I won’t be your girlfriend until you ask my dads permission” thinking this would scare him away because my Dad can be intimidating. But Steven being Steven said “Okay” and the next time he came over to my house, he asked my Dad if he could speak with him and then asked my dads permission to date me (I laughed so hard). But I was so happy to be Steven's girlfriend, and now I am even happier to be marrying him.