Shortly before starting medical school in 2021, some classmates were getting together to hike Piestewa Peak in Phoenix as sort of a meet and greet. Both of us had recently moved from Michigan and Texas and so we knew absolutely no one. We both later learned that we almost chickened out of going on the hike, but both of our dads encouraged us to go (so thank you to Mr. Scheuring and Mr. Larson). In the middle of the hike, I thought I was going to get sick (I blame it on the elevation change from TX to AZ). I was embarrassed, as I was with a bunch of strangers and didn't want to slow the pack down.

I told everyone to keep on going without me, and it was Jake who asked me if I was okay and said that the group would stay. He made me feel better in that moment (emotionally, that is, it took everything in me to not get sick).

We had a couple more classmate get togethers before starting school and I would try to find him each time and we would spend the night talking and laughing. At one of these dinners weeks later from our first meeting, he asked me about something I had talked about on that first hike and I realized how great of a listener he was (and still is to this day).

Shortly after meeting, I could not get him out of my head and knew I wanted to keep hanging out with him. In a moment very uncharacteristic for me, I used some Crumbl cookies that I had as an excuse to hang out and asked "Do you like sweets?". Come to find out later, he didn't really eat sweets a ton but also wanted to hang out. I brought 1.5 cookies over to his apartment, and we ended up talking and laughing until about 3am. Really, the rest is history from there on out, as it goes. We quickly became friends and then started dating in August 2021. I quickly fell in love with him and the way he listened to me, made me laugh, cared for me, and how he seemed to know what was going on in my mind when I had a hard time talking about things (and still does to this day).

Since then, we have struggled and celebrated our way through the many ups and downs that come with medical school and life in general. We have traveled to Texas, Michigan, and Colorado and have had many adventures in Arizona as well.

We have grown in our faith in the Lord and are so thankful for all that He has carried us through. We look forward to all that is to come!