Well it all starts over six years ago when I saw this boy standing alone at a DECA conference... I distinctly remember my first solo conversation with John. He was cute and kind and all I knew is that I wanted to keep talking to him for as long as possible. John and I talked every single day after school after that. We bonded over one of our favorite series of books, the Kingdom Keepers, and continued to flirt our way through the remainder of our junior year. I remember waiting for John to walk down the junior hallway every day after lunch (with a chocolate milk in hand) so I could talk to him for a few minutes before my next class. One day in the summer between junior and senior year, I was talking to a friend about how much I liked John. I was pretty convinced that we would never date since it was summer break and we were not going to run into each other for awhile. That day, she called John, told him we were "in the neighborhood" (we were downtown), and asked to stop by his house. We showed up to see him and talked in his house for a moment before Mrs. Hardin gave us a coupon for a Blaze pizza and we headed for Maryland Farms. My friend shortly made up an excuse to leave and John and I nervously chatted while we finished our ice cream from the spot next door. As we were leaving, John asked me if I wanted to see Pitch Perfect 2 with him later that week. I said yes and... the rest is history!

One day in the fall of Junior year of high school, one of my friends randomly asked a group of us if someone would be her partner for DECA. I didn’t know what that was or what I would have to do, but I said “what the heck, sure” and I’m really glad I did. At the district competition a couple months later, I got caught in conversation with one of my partner’s friends, a girl I sorta knew from school. I can’t remember if we talked for 15 minutes or an hour and a half, but I just remember not wanting the conversation to stop. Conveniently, I happened to see this girl a lot that spring. I found myself wandering past her locker, walking out to the parking lot around the same time she did, and even randomly were on the same tour at Wake Forest. We eventually ended up on a school trip to Orlando together, and I have to say that walking around Disney World with the girl of your dreams is pretty magical. Naturally, I was a little nervous to ask her out, and I was kinda dragging my feet. Luckily, we have really good friends. One of the first days after school got out, I had just finished mowing the lawn when I got a call from one of my friends (the same DECA partner mentioned above). She said that her and Emma were in the neighborhood and wanted to stop by. I said sure and sprinted to shower before they got there. After grabbing a bite at Blaze pizza (coupon provided by my amazing mother) and some ice cream, I knew it was the time. As we stood on the sidewalk not wanting to say goodbye, I came up with the only movie in theaters that I could think of and asked Emma to go to Pitch Perfect 2 with me. Thankfully, she still said yes.