How We Met

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How We Met

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Anyone who knew me throughout my early 20s could attest that I would almost always happily go to Lahaina's Beach House with you, you better believe I had already ordered us both California burritos for when we got there, and that I had just replied to Abby Weber's Instagram story for the 15th weekend in a row. Very smooth I know. Consistency is key. This friendly banter on social media over the years eventually led some of her closest friends to give me the noble title as her “Instagram boyfriend”, a banner I was proud to hang years later. Abby would usually offer a rebuttal along these lines: “You guys don’t have someone like this? Someone who playfully flirts with you on Instagram?” to which they would quickly respond “No.” As fate would have it, these futile attempts at garnering this girl’s attention would eventually pay off. I left my final deployment in 2021, excited to leave the ship behind and in so many words start the rest of my life. So, what’s a hopeless romantic without any potential leads on the love of his life to do? Well, I did what any wise man would do... I took all the money I had and bought a house solely so I could post a thirst trap with my real estate agent to Instagram, who happens to be much better looking. Naturally, this post was a huge hit - thanks Matt - and of all the congratulatory messages I received from friends, there was one that stuck out most, Abby's. In true Abby form, there was no ulterior motive on her end; she was just kind enough to reach out and say congratulations, or so she says. So naturally, I’m ten steps ahead by this point… “Is she flirting with me?” “How do I respond?” “What if she doesn’t respond back?” No problem, here we go.

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Continued...

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I met her innocent “Wow! Congrats!” with a “Thanks! Come visit!” partnered with the creepy smiling sunglasses emoji we all know and love. I’m killing it. I catch myself laughing as I sit here and type this up because after a bit more banter back and forth that’s exactly what happened. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? The best part of our story in my mind, and I think our closest friends would agree, is that I think we both met at a time in our lives where we wanted to embark on something crazy and had nothing to lose. We both trusted a feeling and let all the other details fall into place. So here we are, 10+ years of friendly banter all lead to this. I finally had my moment, I’d better not screw it up. After a few days of FaceTiming, Abby decided a flight out to San Diego was the only way to see if I was worth tolerating going forward. Lucky for us, we both happened to be in Cincinnati a few days prior to her visit and were able to hang out in our hometown to take some of the pressure off the upcoming San Diego visit and ensure that this was something we both wanted to see through going forward. I took her to Hyde Park Square for our first date, where we would end up getting engaged. If nothing else, she at least knew what she was getting herself into at this point. Her five-day trip out to San Diego quickly extended to a week. I then cut my July 4th plans short to surprise her in Chicago. Next, she surprised me in San Diego for my birthday. We couldn’t get enough of each other. We would spend almost every weekend together in San Diego, Chicago or somewhere in between. We soon realized that we needed to be in the same place, that we needed a doggie, and the rest was history. We love thinking back to these early days of our story as an affirmation of not taking life too seriously, trusting a feeling, and simply reflecting on how things came to be.