It all started 22 years ago when I was born on January 20th, 2003 around 3pm. After ensuring this earth place was safe and worth checking out, I gave Evelyn the all clear and she was born January 20, 2003 around 5pm. We spent our whole lives never living more than 10 minutes away from each other. This fact, having a shared birthday, however, was an early point of contention. But more on that later.

We met for the first time at the age of 17 years, 11 months and 19 days. January 8th, 2021 was the first time the whole of Elyria Catholic High School was in session together. Being in COVID years, we spent the first semester alternating days in class and online; A-M was in person one day while N-Z was online and vice-versa. I hear Evelyn was quite troubled by this arrangement, and has been quoted saying, "But what if my soul mate has a last name on the other side of the alphabet?"

Little did she know.

Now I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have an Instagram-crush on Evelyn after hearing my friends talk about her earlier in the year. I mean she was beautiful! And I guess that’s all 17 year old me really needed to know at that point. Despite being in different online and in-person sections, we happened to share an online class together on Wednesdays. She says she had eyes for me, but dismissed the notion as I was clearly preoccupied with the video games I was playing on the TV I set up behind the computer…

Anyways. My Instagram crush that was ever so distant would be ever so close when we all went to school together second semester. Evelyn had actually spent the first semester sitting together with my best friend Henry at lunch. So the first day of classes, of course I went to sit with Henry. After unpacking my lunch and talking with Henry, none other than Evelyn Dyson comes up to inform me that I had taken her seat. Due to social distancing at the time there were only 2 seats to a table, and the table next to us was an awkward distance away. “Sorry?” I said. A blessing or a curse, I was never all that good at talking to girls. But wow, even with a mask I thought this must be the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen. So what did I do to show my interest you might ask? Avoid conversation at all cost with her during lunch over the next few weeks. When Henry went to the restroom, I strategically went to talk to my other friends so as to avoid conversation with her. Really, it was nothing Evelyn did, well except make me really nervous. It was our shared study hall together where things started clicking. She would basically force me into conversations and slowly but surely I opened up. She would tell me about her dreams- not "I want to be a scientist one day" kind of dreams- but her long nights of bizarre alien dystopian type dreams. And I looked forward to them every day.

Being the second week of January, our birthdays were coming up and we were on the subject. I told her my birthday was January 20th, she said it was hers too. Yea right, what an odd thing to lie about, I thought. But she wouldn’t back down from her lie. So I told her to go home and send me her birth certificate. And it was true! The Adam-and-Eve parallel grows ever deeper...

In February, after my many conversations with my mom to understand women, I decided I would ask Evelyn if I could pick her up so we could drive together to go sledding with some friends. At this point, my Instagram crush had fully matured to a fascination with a heart and mind that I was very attracted to. Sledding went great, with our friends trying all evening to sit us next to each other on the sled. And it was going great until we said goodbye. “Bye Jacob!” she said. Immediate blush. “I mean.. Adam.” Hey, I wasn’t gonna let a little slip up take any steam away. As we talked more at school and on the phone, my mom once again helped me devise the next step: asking her to hang out... One. On. One. After what felt like hours of deliberation, I sent that text and instinctively threw my phone across the room out of sheer panic; the hole in the wall from my phone is still visible to this day.

She wanted to hang out too! It was our first snow day, so I went over her house and we built an epic snow fort with her little sisters. For lunch we had, what I am now certain of after some convincing is not a Dyson staple, hotdogs on extra extra extra toasted buns. After talking to her dad about my college and life plans, of which I had none, I went home to debrief with my parents. It seemed like a green light so we started to hang out more and more. It was March 2021, and after 6 weeks of Lego sets, puzzles, and Star Wars movies, Evelyn decided it was time for me to be a man.

“You do know you have to ask me out on a date, right?” she said.

“Isn’t that what we’ve been doing?” I asked, unassumingly.

“Uhh no, we’ve been building Lego sets and watching Star Wars, you actually have to like.. ask me out.”

See, in my young naive and ignorant mind, dating and becoming boyfriend and girlfriend kinda just happened. Like it was some unspoken understanding. But that wasn’t the case, and after some google searches Evelyn was, in fact, correct.

So it was set. On a Friday in March we would go to the Rocky River Metro-parks and walk around and then find a nice place to have some sandwiches. It went really great. Or so I thought. The next week when I was in Chicago visiting some colleges, I decided it would be the best time to ask her if we could be official. It might be helpful to note this was both of our first times dating anyone, or being at this stage of a relationship. After confessing my feelings, devastation struck. Evelyn replied that she didn’t think she was ready for a relationship. After all, we were heading off to different colleges in 4 months. She had another reason and I remember it well.

“Two of my older sisters got married to their first boyfriend and I don’t think I’m ready for that.”

You can enjoy the dramatic irony, reader.

The latter half of March and all of April were spent pretty awkwardly. Silent lunches and study halls, once filled with laughter were now silent. Only one thing would stand to end this reign of terror: Senior year prom. After hearing Evelyn was going to prom with one of my friends, I decided to ask a girl to prom. I didn't think it was a big deal, sure I got friendzoned and it hurt a lot, but one learns to live. But boy was I about to find out how Evelyn felt. This all came to a head one lunch period. Evelyn had caught wind of my going with another girl, and you could see the steam coming out of her ears. Wait, a minute, wasn't she the one to end things with me? In a heated, semi-joke semi-serious argument with a couple of her friends to back her up and couple of my friends behind me, all was revealed. In that fateful lunch period, we realized we still liked each other, a lot.

"We need to talk."

Evelyn said in study hall later that day. We then spent all of the class period pouring our hearts out to each-other and all the regret we had been living with the past few weeks. (We thought it was a private conversation but our friend said the walls we were talking behind were pretty thin. Oh well, they'd know soon anyway.)

We knew we wanted to go to prom together. The only issue was that we both had dates already.

And now I shall talk about a meeting that rivals the secret Hamilton-Jefferson meeting that moved the capital to DC, a conversation that’s been compared to the likes of the phone calls between Kennedy and Khrushchev. We decided we would meet up at Panera. 6 hours and 2 bagels later, we emerged with a plan: we would swap prom dates, dubbed "Operation: Exchange."

Needless to say… that didn’t work but we still went to prom together, and it was perfect. We managed to fit 4 years of high school relationship drama into one semester! We pride ourselves on efficiency.

The summer between high-school and college was a blast. We became girlfriend/boyfriend, graduated, and learned a lot about what it meant to be in a relationship. We tried our best to ignore the inevitable- leaving for college. I didn’t get into to OSU but Evelyn did, so I chose the next best option, the University of Dayton. Long distance was rough, and my 4.5 hour voyage on public transit from Dayton to Columbus wasn’t the most enjoyable, but wow did it help our love mature and grow in ways we are very thankful for today. Even so, before the first week of class had ended, I applied to transfer to OSU for the spring semester :)

The past 3.5 years at OSU have been a blast. We have met the best friends we’ve ever had, and most importantly, grown in our faith. The lessons we’ve learned being involved in our church and community here have laid the foundations we will build the rest of our lifetime. Although I wanted to marry Evelyn since that first summer, it really began to become a reality earlier this year. After some prayer, I knew Evelyn really was the one. So, November 29th, she said yes, and the only girlfriend I’ve ever had will be the only woman I’ll ever love.

Thanks for reading, I can’t wait to celebrate with you guys!

"That is why a man leaves his father and mother

and clings to his wife,

and the two of them become one body."

Genesis 2:24