During our freshman year of college, our paths crossed on a back porch. Both of us were heavily involved with Young Life in highschool. We both decided that we wanted to lead Young Life while in college, and that is where our story starts. Sometime in August of 2020, we met at our very first leader training on our friend and leader, Sean's, back porch. From the moment that I met Michael I knew there was something special about him. I was too scared to talk to him for quite a long time, but I knew I wanted to become friends. The first day that I saw him I immediately told my mom I wanted to marry him (so weird!), and her reply was something like "Sarah, you can't say that you don't know anything about him!" Flash forward a few months and we started hanging out with some others as a big friend group, and as time passed we began doing things on our own. I knew there was something so special that I had never experienced before. On the first time that we hung out on our own, we took a day trip and I had one of the best days ever. We left around 7 in the morning and headed for the New River Gorge, and did not return home until midnight. This day was so special for many reasons, but my favorite part was the conversations we had in the car. Shortly after that trip (and thanks to my friend Libbie for forcing Michael to tell her information) we decided that we did like eachother and wanted to pursue a relationship. Sean always told us his best dating advice was to chase after the Lord as fast as you can, and when you see someone running beside you, maybe they are one to pursue. That is exactly what we did. 1 John 4:19 "We love because He first loved us."

What started as an ordinary day, quickly became a fairytale. We had an early start to the day and headed for our special spot, the New River Gorge. We went for a hike at Long Point, and I asked Sarah to marry me. We enjoyed the views as we reminisced on all of our past adventures there. After our hike and proposal, we decided to brave the walk underneath the bridge. While it was a super cool experience, we were absolutely terrified. We have shared many thrilling adventures together, but this is at the top of our list.