A long time ago in a galaxy far far away....it all began with a text only saying “Hey:)”...or did it?

After becoming friends in high school following that all so beautiful text, Andrew and Bea began their journey. The first adventure was prom in the spring of 2014 which they attended as only friends. Attending that night’s events together enabled both of them to learn more about each other and actually talk together instead of just texting. In fact, they spent the whole night dancing, talking, and talking some more. To give you a glimpse, the “after prom” event that year was held at Speedzone--a place where there were numerous games to play, go-carts to drive, and food to eat--and instead of doing any or all of those things, Andrew and Beatrice spent their time sitting, watching, and talking until it was time to leave. To this day, that first prom together is one of their most treasured memories and ignited their relationship moving forward. Although that prom happened in April, it wasn’t until October of that same year that Andrew and Beatrice officially became a couple when he asked her while they were at Sonic for a date. Throughout high school, they enjoyed going on dates of all kinds, but one of their favorites was walking Andrew's dog Marlee at the park. Together they faced obstacles, reached milestones, and celebrated accomplishments, especially as Andrew graduated a year before Bea.

While Bea finished out high school, they attended a total of two more proms and three homecomings together while also managing the first year of long distance as Andrew started attending college in the fall of 2015. For six months after Bea graduated from high school, they made long distance work by talking all the time and making sure to FaceTime too (which they still do today). They even started watching a shows--Hawaii Five-0 and The Clone Wars to be specific--using FaceTime too. “How?” you might ask? Well, since they couldn’t be in front of the same screen, they both pulled up the show on their own computers while keeping each other on their phones. After the first couple tries, they mastered the process of opening an episode, making sure both screens were at 0:00, and then Andrew did the honor of counting down--3, 2, 1, go--at which they pressed their own play buttons and started the show. They had some complications...like one screen freezing and the other not or the Internet not working so well sometimes, but it helped them through their long distance and remained as good memories as they embarked on their next chapters--individually...

While they had managed long distance for a year and a half, both Andrew and Bea realized that they hadn’t developed their individual lives outside of their relationship as much as they needed to, so they made a decision together to conclude that first chapter of their relationship together but remain friends. During this time, they still talked regularly, but they made strides toward developing their own individual lives at their respective colleges. Both prioritized their mental health and overall well-being by making choices that would best benefit themselves versus feeling pressured to make decisions for the sake of their relationship. It was during this time that Beatrice invested more time into her education organization at school, which resulted in her closest friends, best mentors, and most growth in her career at that time. She also found an outreach organization where she made more friends and visited low-income communities once a week to build relationships with kids and provide a warm meal while also hosting a Bible Study. After moving back home for a semester and getting some work experience, Andrew continued his educational journey at the University of North Texas in the fall of 2017. After realizing his need for a community of support and friendships in order to be successful (and encouragement from his dad), he joined Sigma Nu. As a brother of Sigma Nu, he made lifelong friends and matured as a student and man. As you can see, these things could have been explored and/or accomplished as a couple as well, but it was more important to Andrew and Bea that they build these individual lives before reconsidering where they stand as a couple.

After almost a year of being broken up, Andrew and Bea started spending more time together and reached the point where they wanted to be a couple again. On New Year’s Eve in 2017, they decided to stay in and cook a meal together. Andrew even bought some champagne for the evening. When they started cooking, he asked Bea to get the champagne flutes out of the cabinet, but Bea knew this cabinet had all different kinds of glasses in it so she only swung open the cabinet doors and looked back at Andrew to ask which ones he wanted. To her embarrassment, he replied with “the ones with the note in front of them would be good” with a smile and laugh. Looking back at the glasses, sure enough there was a bright orange piece of paper propped up in front of two champagne flutes. Inside, there was a letter detailing Andrew’s feelings and ending with asking Bea to be his girlfriend (again). Since that night, Andrew and Bea embarked on this new journey together--back to long distance (but not as far), talking all the time, and thankfully getting to see each other more often and be more present in each other’s lives. While this seemed similar to how things were before, something was different than before. Now, they were more mature adults with their own individual lives coming together as one couple to prepare for their futures. A year and a half later, both Andrew and Bea graduated from their universities. It was finally time for them to be close enough to each other to have weekly date nights and spend almost every weekend together. Andrew remained in Denton, finding a house with his friends, and Bea moved to Frisco to work for the school district, finding an apartment with an old high school friend working in a nearby district. Andrew and Bea enjoyed their six months of “normal” couple life--weekly date nights, weekends together, and the spontaneity of being able to see each other in just thirty minutes--before Andrew decided to pop the question, earlier than Bea expected.

It was a beautiful sunny day on February 2nd, 2020--a perfect day for a proposal. Andrew had told Bea he wanted to go eat at Hula Hut in Little Elm and seemed pretty adamant about doing so. Just minutes from the restaurant and as they were passing the Little Elm Park, Andrew turned into the Sonic parking lot and said “I have a better idea. Let’s get Sonic and go have a picnic in the park” with a huge smile on his face. Stunned after his commitment to eating at Hula Hut, Bea wasn’t really sure what to think about this new plan, but it was a beautiful day, so she agreed. After getting their food and driving across the street to the park, Andrew started talking about this particular place at the park that he had found when he came to run in the park once. Keep in mind, this park is in Little Elm and at the time Andrew was living in Denton which was twenty-five minutes away from this park whereas his gym was maybe 10 minutes from his house. So, needless to say, Bea was a little confused about this so called “run” sometime during the winter. Nevertheless, Bea asked a couple questions but went along with the plan for them to find this private picnic area Andrew had found so they could have a picnic together. After walking on the winding sidewalk through the trees, they were getting close. Right when they came up to the bend in the sidewalk toward the pavilion, Andrew stopped and covered Bea’s eyes. It was at that moment that Bea knew something was about to happen. Making sure Andrew wasn’t going to let her trip or get scratched by a branch or anything like that, Bea walked with him down this sidewalk to the grass past the pavilion. When Andrew told Bea to open her eyes, he was down on one knee with the most beautiful personalized ring box, and he asked Bea to marry him. Around him, he had arranged for a picnic to be set up, complete with champagne and rose petals. It was the most special, personal, and perfect proposal and the easiest question for Bea to answer.