We're Tying the Knot!

Once upon a time, Shannon really wanted to go to Summit. She was ready... she was 16 and she was a tad boy crazy... The year was 2020, plot twist, Summit never happened that year. During this time, God matured me a lot and I went to Summit in South Carolina summer of '21 ready to befriend guys AND girls- I had resigned to not look for a relationship. The two weeks flew by and towards the end I was super proud of myself because I spent a lot of time getting to know a lot of people- I hadn't really just been staying in friend "clicks" and that was awesome. Anyway, there I was, two days from accomplishing my goal of making a lot of friends and NOT crushing on anyone in particular, when all of us students took a trip to Greenville. My small group started doing our own thing, but as Alana (my new friend who also wanted to keep meeting others) and I were hanging in a river bed. Giggling and shrieking, we almost fell in multiple times. That's when I truly saw Zach for the first time. This guy was A) alone on a rock in the middle of the rushing river and B) leaping and bounding like annoyingly easily. But now I know, he was stalking me... creepy right? No. Not creepy. Actually really adorable because I'd never been pursued in my life until this man. Long story, well, long, there was a 2 hour bus ride home at some point sitting next to each other. The bus was super loud- and THAT'S why I thought he wanted my number - to text me because we couldn't hear each other. IT MADE SENSE IN MY HEAD OK. Also side note- I thought he was from El Paso, Texas, not El Paso County, CO so I had probably subconsciously dismissed this guy for impracticality sake. We had a couple other conversations that I remember, like when I picked up an enormous dead bumble bee, or when we were watching a volleyball game from a window but talking across the room from each other?? But anyway this guy truly was falling hard I guess because after a walk later with him and Alana (again, I was not giving much thought to the prevalent time I spent with him), he messaged her and said he had a "not so small crush on Shannon". When Alana told me this I FREAKED OUT. LIKE YAY. I had no idea when that crush formulated- but apparently he had orchestrated people and events to get to talk to me more during the camp. The thought that he had a crush on me was literally the best thing to think about on a long flight home! This story took place in July. October I realized I loved him, but didn't tell him til we started dating the following April. God has been maturing us in these 2.5 years and drawing us closer to Him and together. He gets all the praise that this worked out and I get to marry my camp crush *giggles*. Thanks so much for reading if you made it this far- and I'm so excited to see you at this PARTAY!!!!!

It is hard for me to believe that it was almost three years ago that I met Shannon Joy Fliegel. We have done so much together, gone on so many adventures, and spent so much time together that I honestly couldn't imagine my life without her. It all began when I was 18 years old coming off a rather rough senior year of high school when my mom told me that she had signed me up for a summit session in South Carolina. I was really excited to go to get away from all the pressure to figure out what life was going to look like now that I was done with high school, not to mention that I was single and was, believe it or not, attracted to women. It was funny because when we got to summit, the speaker made some joke in the orientation about how all the guys would be looking around searching for their future wives, and I was like dang, he knows me so well! It didn't take much investigation to realize that there were lots of girls at summit. Regardless, only 2 girls caught my attention, and one happened to be a giggly, blue-eyed girl, with redonkulously stunning curly golden hair...like wow. It occurred to me that I would have to incorporate some of my, let's just say charm, to get to know her. So, the journey to get to know this girl started. I began by making sure all the guys I was in bible study with knew that the most attractive girl at summit was basically already taken. It was pretty funny because at the most all she had said to me at that point was "Hi". Daniella, a longtime friend, was my inside source of info, who also saw a potential connection and began talking her up, getting me her name and telling me she also lived in Colorado. She helped me figure out that Shannon was going to Greenville, North Carolina as her choice of the three trips you could go on as the weekend summit excursion. So, I obviously made my choice to go to Greenville. When we got off the bus in Greeneville, Daniella, one of her friends, and I began to casually follow Shannon and Alana as we walked through Greenville on the way to the Greenville waterfalls. As we arrived at the waterfall in Greeneville, Shannon and Alana promptly took off their shoes and began wading in the river. Daniella then was like, “Zach you have to go in and talk to them, this is a perfect opportunity!” I agreed and took off my shoes too. I casually entered the water and crossed to the other side to hang out on a massive boulder as I watched Shannon and Alana slowly make their way across too. At one point on the way back they were struggling to make it across a certain section of the river, I decided to seize the opportunity and chivalrously offered a hand. In my mind I thought I was basically already her hero. After that we parted ways to explore separately. After we got back to the busses, I persistently looked for bus Shannon had gotten on and "randomly" found and chose the bus she got on. As I approached, I struck up a “chance” conversation about the waterfall we were both at and nonchalantly sat next to Shannon, continuing the conversation. Since the bus was so loud and I was having an important conversation with Shannon I took advantage of the situation and was like, “Hey, you should give me your number so we can text because it is hard to hear over the bus’s engines.” Smooth I know. Shannon obliviously agreed, although I was convinced that she was crushing on me bigtime. It wasn’t until later I realized I was delusional, and Shannon saw me as a fun chance friendship. Over the course of the next week, I found myself finding Shannon and Alana and joining their conversations. After summit ended, we began to talk as friends realizing that we were actually super compatible and enjoyed each other. Since then, our relationship has developed into one of the greatest friendships I could ever imagine. I am beyond excited to share the rest of my life with Shannon and continue to pursue her as long as I can. Love you Shannon <3