Bobby's Perspective

Aubrey and I met at Grand Valley State University on the night of her birthday, April 17, 2021. She had a bunch of her friends over, and one of my friends was seeing her at the time.

A couple other friends and I decided to stop by her party, and I saw Aubrey for the first time - very sweet, pretty, and friendly, with an unforgettable smile.

My friends and I didn't stay very long and Aubrey and I didn't talk much, but she left me interested in knowing her more.

A few months later that I noticed on Instagram that Aubrey was an avid runner. Sometimes the maps of her runs would make fun shapes like giraffes and rifles, so I used that as a way to start a conversation with her - I suggested that she run a fun shape for the 4th of July.

To my surprise, she actually did! She went on a 6 mile run shaped like a flag!

From that interaction, I got a taste for just how fun-loving and up for a challenge Aubrey is.

My interest in her grew, and hoping that she might also be interested in me, I built up the confidence to ask her out.

"How far would I have to run to be able to go out with you?"

She never did say exactly how many miles, but a year later we ran together for 22 miles in a trail race through the backwoods of Canada. That must have been enough haha

It was fitting that our first date was after Aubrey had just finished a long run in mid-July. We went out to eat at Rockwell Republic in downtown Grand Rapids, and found ourselves in such good conversation that we extended our time together by walking around downtown Grand Rapids until dark.

We spent as much time as we could together that summer before entering one of many stages of long-distance dating.

Making a lot of trips over the Mackinac bridge to see each other, we continued to get closer and eventually fall in love.

And here we are!

Aubrey's Perspective

I went on a date with one of Bobby's friends. During the time that we were talking, my friends threw me a 21st birthday party. Bobby's friend was invited, and he asked if a few of his friends could stop by to say hi during the party. I said ok just for a few minutes. Turns out one of those friends was Bobby! We said hello, he said happy birthday, and then they left. My first impression of Bobby was that he seemed very nice and was easy to talk to.

Fast forward to a few months later, I get a message from Bobby on Instagram! At this time, I had been doing a lot of running as I was training for the Detroit Marathon. Bobby was commenting on one of my runs that I had posted online, and we began to talk. After a few days of talking, I received a message from Bobby that said, "How many miles would I have to run in order to take you on a date?" I responded with, "I am wondering how far you would run."

We went on our first date downtown at Rockwell Republic, and the rest can probably be considered history. We had such a nice time talking and getting to know each other, and I knew after that date that I wanted to see him again. We continued to date throughout that summer, spending many days at the beach and many late nights downtown Grand Rapids.

When the fall came, it was time for Bobby to go back up to Lake State for school. We were both really sad because we were in a time where we were just starting to grow our connection, and now we had to try to figure out long distance. It was a tough year, but we ultimately learned so much about each other and grew so close. Since then we have had other times where we have had to navigate long distance as well. We have learned to be grateful for those times, because we cherish so much this time that we can be in close proximity to each other!

We are so looking forward to our future together and to see how the Lord is going to use us to grow his Kingdom.