The year is 2011. I'm in high school, doing high schooler things when I see this beautiful girl walk by me in the hallway. Goosebumps hit as her flowing gold locks wisp my arm. I recognize her from somewhere. "Oh, this is the girl from Shoprite!" I thought. Whether it be at the help desk or the checkout line, the few moments I got to lock eyes with her made the hour-long shopping trip worth it. I doubt she noticed me, as this was a small town and she probably saw plenty of people from school there. An acquaintance by name, but a stranger by heart. Time passed. Our friend groups began to mesh, but we had never formally met. At one point, we were even in the same house, albeit different rooms. Still, I couldn't work up the courage to approach her. This was very unlike me, as my high school experience revolved around getting to know as many people as possible. She was different - quiet. A bit obscure. No amount of candy or bootleg DVDs was going to break the ice with her. She wasn't buying. I had no choice but to leave her drift off into the metaphorical sunset. The future "love of my life". Gone, just like that. Lucky for me, this was a time where even strangers added each other on their favorite social media apps in a race to max out their "friends list". Over the next few years, I would periodically check her page to see any change in relationship status. Then I saw her on a dating app which gives you one "Super Like" a day. This guarantees that the girl you pick will, without fail, see that you picked her. I gave her my daily Super Like and closed the app, waiting for a response. Nothing. Then again, and once more. Crickets. Seriously, Steph? So I deleted the apps and went on about life, finishing my education. Years later, I saw a picture of her and her dog, Bruno, come up on my Facebook page. This was my shot. No matching needed, no pressure of being on a dating app. If I could just post a comment on this picture that invoked a response, there's my ice breaker - and she clearly loved this dog. "I don't blame you, your dog was made for the camera", I commented. ...She responded. The rest is history.

Nick was the too-cool-for-school guy who wore swim trunks every single day of our senior year of high school, just for the laughs. I was the quiet wallflower who was too fearful to even speak aloud in class, eyes caked in black eyeliner and blasting some Avenged Sevenfold in her iPod Nano headphones. Nick and I had mutual friends, but never spoke while we were in high school. Oddly enough, I did know his twin brother. Poor Zach had to train me at Burger King, where I scrubbed urinals and filled paper bags of french fries for one incredibly long week before I quit and went across the street to ShopRite. Fast forward nine years. This is the typical millennial love story - boy comments on a social media photo, boy slides into girl's direct messages, girl agrees to a lunch date on the beach...the rest is history. I'll never forget how I felt before our first date. I was so nervous, I could barely stomach the Kid's Cuisine Popcorn Chicken I heated up for lunch. Don't judge me. We spent roughly three hours sitting on the Brigantine beach - on a rather violently windy afternoon - talking about anything and everything. Once the sun started to set, Nick suggested we start walking back because he had inadvertently swallowed so much sand that had been blowing around on the beach. Same, dude. It was literally caked into my molars, but I didn't say anything because I didn't want our conversation to stop. From the beginning, we knew that we connected on many levels - music, morals, ethics, traveling, spirituality, are aliens real? - and had nearly identical life goals. On one of our early dates, the waitress said she wished she could grab a chair and join us because we had "incredible energy". In the 4+ years that we've been together, we have laughed every single day, traveled to numerous states and countries, and endured hardships that have allowed us to grow stronger both individually and as a couple. I am so excited to marry my best friend and begin the next chapter of this beautiful life.