Jake and I actually "met" in the summer of 2018 when we were both on team as camp counselors at Warren Willis United Methodist Camp. Although, we didn't talk to each other until the months leading up to the summer of 2019. Jake and I would return to camp for the summer of 2019. As we started to get closer to our return to camp, I started getting comments on my Instagram from Jake. The comment was a consistent and short "sup." I initially thought of this as a prank being played on me. Jake was more a part of the socially well-known crowd, and I always considered myself an outsider back then. I thought, "There is no way someone like Jake Tonski was hitting on me for real." Time went on, and the "sups" continued until one day, Jake commented his phone number on my public Instagram post. I was shocked but curious, so I texted him, and the initial response was, "Who is this." I thought, "What do you mean, who is this? How many people's social media pages are you leaving your phone number on??" After that, we talked all the time until Jake decided he "wasn't ready" to be dating. Before we returned to camp, Jake texted me and told me he had a lot going on and couldn't be present as he would like for me, so he decided to call it quits. I was bummed about this, but I had told him early on not to play any games with me and if at any point he wanted out, to be clear and tell me. After some time of not talking, we both went to camp for a training weekend, and the energy was still palpable. It wasn't too long until summer started, and we started talking more in person and getting to know each other. Everything was always easy with him. We had the same moral compass, experienced similar trauma, valued the same things, and felt safe to be around him. Soon after summer started, we did everything together, and Jake asked me to be his girlfriend. Initially, I didn't get the hint, but when he re-asked me the question, I, of course, said yes. Since June 26th, 2019, we have been together.

The first time I ever saw Emily was at the beginning of Summer in 2018. We were both camp counselors for the summer and I remember the day so clearly: she was walking across the courtyard at camp, wearing her red flannel, her red chuck taylors and a black jansport backpack. I was walking with a friend to the “break room” and we were talking about something (I can't remember what) but once I laid eyes on Emily- it stopped me in my tracks. I stopped whatever we were talking about and told him “I don't care what it takes, I’m going to marry that girl” - and since that day I’ve had a massive crush on “Emily Dralus” Fast forward to the beginning of 2019 I figured I would shoot my shot, so I started commenting on her instagram, first starting with a simple “sup” then I would gas her up and make her laugh from afar because I was too scared to make a move in person. Eventually I commented my phone number, and she surprisingly texted me. We texted daily for a while, but as things got more and more serious I realized I couldn't hide behind a screen forever, my anxiety got the better of me and said we should call “this” off before it got too serious. For the Summer of 2019 I was on the Leadership Support team, and with that came the weekend of “programing planning meetings” and little did I know that Emily was invited to the meetings as a team member representative. I couldn't hide behind a screen anymore. The weekend started off with no contact, just a lot of “stealthy” glances; but in reality it was probably so obvious lmao. Part of the meeting were individual breakouts, and what I was responsible for was to go to each of the breakouts and see how I could help them each, which in turn led me going into Emily's group. I did my thing and shared a couple jokes, made everyone laugh- but I didn't care about everyone else, I only cared whether or not Emily laughed. The weekend came and went and not much conversation actually happened but the energy was almost tangible. Jump to the start of Summer: a week or two went by but then we finally started talking. We spent a night just talking and walking in the courtyard loop of all places. It felt like I’d known her, known her- and after that night we were inseparable. We would spend her breaks together during the week and spend our weekends together going to Chick-fil-a or Target, anything to just spend more time together. I eventually asked her to be my girlfriend on June 26th, 2019 and we have been together since.