We’re getting married!

Reese and I had been in a class together for an entire semester before we ever actually “met.” During our first semester of freshman year at The University of Akron, Reese quietly sat in front of me in our 55 minute, Mon/Wed, ROTC class. At the time I simply thought of him as a fairly thin, half-black, classmate. Fast forward a few months, and my two college roommates asked me if I knew of a “Reese” from ROTC. We went by last names in the program, so I had absolutely no idea who they were talking about. When they described him as a fairly thin, mixed individual, I knew they were talking about “Marsh!” In a burst of enthusiasm, they told me that he was “awesome” and would one day make the GREATEST husband and wanted us to meet. Fast forward again to the beginning of second semester in our ROTC class, inside a new classroom. I walked in, saw him sitting there, and decided I was going to get to know this supposed great-future-husband. So I asked him if we could become friends... He definitely thought I was weird. From there, Reese and I became great friends, and this is where our story probably differs. Throughout that entire semester I came to see Reese as a close friend who always made me laugh. It wasn’t until the following year when one morning we were leaving PT together, and a friend said to us, “something is blossoming here......” Reese and I had just been laughing together as we usually did, and I responded by placing my arm over Reese’s shoulder, and saying, “Nooo! We are just great friends!!” I look back now and see that quite a few people recognized our connection sooner than I did. One day shortly after that experience, I literally woke up, and realized who had been in front of me this entire time. I found myself wanting to spend lots of time talking to him. From there on out, I have constantly put Reese on a pedestal as one of the greatest people I have ever met, and I am so grateful that I loved Reese as a friend before I loved him as a lifelong partner.

It was my freshman year and I was brand new to the “military” (ROTC) which had always discouraged fraternization with cadet peers.The “rule follower” I am (friends would agree), a couple weeks into ROTC and I already found myself talking to this cute blonde, with a bubbly personality. What started out as a friendship based on knowing the same people, our relationship began to blossom more and more as time went on. It wasn’t until we did a community service project together in which I started to realize I was smitten a bit. Fast forward to when I first got my phone in Basic Training, as I turn it back on after not having it a month, and whose number is the first to pop up… Rachel Tustin. I had a missed call and a text from her from 3 weeks prior but I didn’t care, I had 5 minutes so I sent a simple “what’s up, sorry I am in Basic right now” or something along the lines of that. The Drill Sergeants began yelling that our time was up, so I was left wondering what she wanted to text me about after neither of us had talked for a couple months (I would later find out that she had a question about some ROTC event that was going on at the time). I’d like to think she was texting me because she wanted to talk to me. After Basic and with the help of a couple friends, I mustered the courage to “break the rules” and begin pursuing what would now be the woman I am marrying on September 6th, 2020. The friend of a friend, the girl who sat behind me in ROTC, and my future partner.