I first learned of Arianna’s existence in my first year of band camp in the summer of 2014. I was trembling with fear about starting my high school life and was eager to not make a fool of myself right out the gate, so seeking out a lifelong companion wasn’t exactly at the top of my priority list. However, as I started interacting with more people and expanded my network of friends there was this one character who stood out to me. For some reason, I would never find this girl without a smile on her face. It was intriguing to say the least but my timid nature wouldn’t let me introduce myself properly. So for a long time, all I had was a name. Arianna Cantu: The girl who always smiles. It wasn’t until junior year where I would find Arianna in the same chemistry class as me. Without her marching uniform and snare rig, she only seemed to stand out to me more. Through no remarkable means, we just started talking one day. She turned out to be easy going, very fun to be around, and was heavily invested in her 4-H and FFA activities which she shared profusely with me. For someone who had no experience in that sort of lifestyle, I often found myself invested in her lectures (rants) about raising cattle and showmanship. It really wasn’t until senior year where things got fuzzy for me. You see, I had sworn to not seek out a partner until I was in college but then I had Arianna again for another chemistry class. And band class. And after school practices. I started eating lunch with her and some mutual friends, where she introduced me to some of her favorite shows. Sometimes I had errands to run during lunch period and she would even ask to join me on these errands. “Surely she’s just being nice right?”, I thought. “There’s no way a girl could tolerate me for any extended period of time, much less tag along with me for trivial tasks right? Right?” This girl, who for two years I only ever knew name, was now making me look forward to errand runs, just so I could spend more time with her. This girl, fully aware of my claim to not seek companionship, was now making my heart flutter in her presence. She’ll say I was not picking up on the hints, but the reality is I did not want to recognize the hints. I was afraid if my hunch wasn’t real, it was going to dissolve everything between us. That is until one day, coming back from lunch, she dropped a freight train of a hint by confessing her feelings to me. No sooner than that, she turned to run away as if I was a ticking time bomb about to go off. To this day I can’t remember what my thought process was in that moment or if I even had one. But I do remember catching her before she could get away and admitting that I felt the same way. Not long after that, on a cool December afternoon, I met with her after the last bell had rung, and formally asked her to be my girlfriend. It was a huge risk, I know. But it was an opportunity I could not pass up. With pure glee, she accepted my proposal. And then she smiled. That danged smile of hers. We’ve been through a lot in the last 8 years but I like to think that for every opportunity there was for either of us to walk out on this relationship, the fact that neither ever did is a telltale sign that this is where we’re supposed to be. I never claimed to deserve any of the blessings I’ve received in my life. And I certainly don’t feel like I deserve someone as great as Arianna. But I love her with everything that I am. And I will spend the rest of my life proving to God how grateful I am that He put her by my side.

Now I am going to start off by attempting to tell my version of how Mateo and I came to be. Throughout high school, I knew who Mateo was but didn’t start talking to him until we had class together junior year. What first caught my attention of Mateo is how he always made everyone laugh in class and also how he was always in a positive mood. I have always admired this about Mateo and was interested in wanting to get to know him more. Being a shy person that I am, I kept my feelings to myself. That is until a mutual friend that I sat next to in chemistry class kept on bugging me, wanting to know if I had a crush on anyone. I finally shared with him that I wanted to get to know Mateo. My friend gave me his Snapchat and I reached out to him first to start a simple streak (this is how you made friends in 2016). We would text occasionally through Snapchat but it never went beyond casual banter on account of him being taken during this time. When Mateo was finally single senior year, I started talking to him in person and having more classes together certainly made that easier. On top of him always being in a positive mood, he was the only guy that actually seemed interested in what I had to say during our conversations which was new to me. Because of this, I found myself wanting to hang out with him more. The only time I had to hang out with him outside of class was during lunch, but he always ran errands during this time and would only be in the cafeteria for a little bit (what kind of errands does a high schooler even have?). During lunch I would ask him, “Hey, where are you going?” To which he would respond, “Oh I need to go run errands” and I asked him, “Can I join you?”. He stared at me confused and then said, “Sure”. From then on, this is what kickstarted the fuzzy part of our friendship because he never got tired of me so this became our daily routine. One day when we were both heading to class, Mateo was leading the way down the crowded hallways and I was following right behind him. However, I was getting lost in the crowd and Mateo seeing this, had reached his hand out towards me and without thinking I grabbed onto him. This is when I felt all fuzzy inside and realized that this confirmed my desire to become more than friends with him. From that moment on, I continued giving him hints and hoping he would catch on but he never did. So during one of our lunch errands when we were walking down the hallway towards class, I told him that I liked him and then darted to my next class. In December, he finally asked me out and we have been inseparable ever since. I am so grateful to have him in my life and I don’t know where I’d be without him. He is always there when I need him and treats me with respect. He always knows how to cheer me up when I am sad and helps me when I get fed up with the world. Being long distance for 6.5 years was not easy, but I believe it made us stronger. Even though our career paths are very different, we see the same future together and love each other unconditionally.