Our roots go all the way back to our freshman year at JMU, although Ella doesn’t remember. My friend Tyson (RIP) and I spent probably 64% of freshman year at the JMU dining hall and we invented a little game to pass the time and assert our dominance over our peers. We would lock eyes with anybody walking past our table and not look away until they sheepishly averted their gaze, signaling that we were the alpha males. But one day I met my match. A young Ella Polumbo comes walking by our table near the taco line, wearing a dark blue Yankees hat. I locked in on her as my next target and she stared right back as she got closer and closer. As she got within a few feet of our table she gave a polite “hey” (although I could hear a bit of “why are you staring at me like that, weirdo?” in her voice). I responded with an awkward “sup” and sat there dumbfounded at my first career loss in Dhall Staring Chicken as Ella disappeared around the corner. I should have realized that that was exactly the kind of woman I wanted in my life and immediately chased her down, but luckily it all worked out eventually. About a year later, after joining the JMU Younglife College team, I officially met Ella, who was also a part of the team, at a YLC planning day at the river. My main thought was: “this girl is hot.” We ended up both being put on the YLC event-planning pod which led to us spending a lot more time together. As I got to know Ella better, my thoughts turned into: “this girl is hot and funny.” Eventually, I was finding every excuse I could to be with her. We were meeting up not only for Younglife College events, but also to pick up chocolate milk and to leave death threats on Brady Working’s car. It wasn’t long before I started thinking: “this girl is hot and funny and kind and creative and elegant and intelligent and a good dancer and has an absurd number of Broadway Musical lyrics memorized and is incredibly dedicated to the truth and to Jesus and those around her.” I knew she was something special, and I eventually built up the courage to tell her how I felt and ask her out. She agreed and things just kept getting better from there. For the rest of our time at JMU, we spent virtually every day together. Then, this past April, as I was finishing up my first year of law school and Ella was starting a new job, I asked her to marry me at a vineyard outside of Charlottesville. A lot has changed since our duel in Dhall but we could not be more excited for what God has in store for us moving forward.

Tyler and I met in our sophomore year of college. If I’m honest, I don’t remember the D Hall moment he always talks about—but I do have photo evidence of me and my dear friend Madi doing one of our classic D Hall laps, and yes, I was wearing my Yankees hat. I can’t pinpoint the initial moment I knew I had feelings, but I do remember feeling inexplicably drawn to him from the moment he got placed on my Younglife College team. Yes, I thought he was handsome, but it was more than that. I felt magnetized by his presence. In group settings, I kept finding myself just wanting to be near him. He was so different from anyone I’d ever met, and it stirred a deep curiosity inside of me. I wanted to understand him. And the more I did, the more I adored him. It wasn’t a frivolous, fun, fleeting crush. I didn’t know it yet, but I was falling into something much deeper—something both peaceful and thrilling. All I knew was that just spending time with him was good for me. It made me, and somehow everything else exponentially better. Even as "just friends," it felt like we were learning from each other, evolving together in perfect harmony. Still, deep down, I knew it couldn’t stay just friends, because whatever was happening between us felt like history in the making. I spent a lot of time defending the “guys and girls can just be friends” narrative—until my roommate Maria finally dug a little deeper. I told her “I mean, I know I’m going to marry him, so can’t I just save him for later?” She laughed at my response and gently reminded me that God’s timing would always be sovereign over mine. The truth is, every moment with Tyler felt groundbreaking, like we were moving toward something real and meaningful. And that terrified me. But in retrospect, I thank God I didn’t try to save him for later. God’s timing was so much sweeter than mine–which is exactly what Maria told me from the start. I was trying to write a love story that belonged to an author much greater than I. My relationship with Tyler has broken every paradigm I once believed true about love and romance. It has been the deepest joy and the most humbling grace. I stand in awe that I get this kind of lottery-winning, wildly requited love with the man that Tyler is.