It was always you

You could say we met in high school because our paths crossed probably a million of times throughout the day and of course we knew of each other, but our story is no "high school sweetheart" fairy tale since we actually NEVER spoke to one another. How could I not go after the boy who wore the American flag every 'Merica Monday for spirit weeks? In 2019 when I returned home from college is where it all began (even though we may have face-timed a few times while I was at Herkimer). They say the best relationships start out as friends and we are living proof of that. Our first real interactions (kinda..Austin was too nervous to talk to me) began at a campground where I worked during the summer. His family practically lived there and often invited me over for meals, making our run-ins with each other pretty frequent. (Fun fact: I jokingly told Austin's mother one of those times that I was going to marry her son one day.) It quickly lead to meeting up at mutual friends' parties, getting ice cream at Stewart's, fishing together, sneaking behind my parent's backs to see him (sorry mom n dad!) and believe it or not, luring me in even deeper with Odin as a puppy. We even decided one night to drive around for over two hours, eventually making it to my father's camp in Parishville, instead of having Austin drop me off at a party. Our friendship quickly flourished just within those few summer months as we soon learned that we were so much alike-in so many ways, all at the same time growing feelings for each other while not even realizing it. Not that we really planned it, but we continued to spend more days and nights with each other which lead to us officially dating (for one night..yeah, I still regret it) We won't get into all of the details at this point in our history, but long story short, I was the silly one who ventured off into other directions with other people. Although I regret making that halt in our journey, one thing we'll never forget is that we NEVER stopped talking to/seeing each other the entire time (2ish years). One of our favorite memories during this time span was when I played "dumb" that I had no idea how to clean my pistol, so I asked him to come over and help, even though I knew exactly how to do it. I'm sure at the time many people, including Austin, assumed I had no feelings for him other than a good friend...but deep down, butterflies filled my stomach every time I saw him. Fast forward to 2021, I went on a vacation to Florida for a week where we still talked to each other every day. The same day I got home, I texted Austin to come over and the second I saw him, I knew. That was it. I knew 100% in that moment, I wanted to be with him the rest of my life and never wanted to go through spurts again where we weren't technically "together". We haven't been apart since. I've thanked God more times than I can count that Austin held on for all those years and never gave up on us. Still to this day I ask him "Why?" and his response every time, "When you know, you know." Since then, we bought a home in Chase Mills in 2022 where we've grown our beautiful little family and will be celebrating our marriage with you this October. So, if you have ever asked us "How long have you guys been together?" and wondered why we've both looked at each other with no idea what to say...now you know. ~"It was always you"~