Being in a small town, Adam and I’s families knew each other quite well and were good friends. I also happened to be great friends with Adam’s sister. Despite this, Adam and I didn’t officially meet until fall of 2016 (my senior year of high school). We quickly became friends! Over the next year our friendship grew into something more and we began dating October 4, 2017.

For the first year of our relationship, we were “long distance” with an hour separating us while he was away at college in Rolla and I attended community college in Union. In 2018, we lengthened that distance to 2-3 hours apart when I began college in Cape Girardeau, Adam finished school and graduated from Rolla Missouri S&T, and he moved to O’Fallon to start his big boy job. We frequently visited each other and FaceTimed nearly everyday.

After I graduated in December 2020, Adam and I moved in together in O’Fallon, MO in a rental. During our time here, I attended graduate school, Adam worked hard at his job, and we learned how to live together and grow together in our relationship. Here, we got our first pet together (3 fish, 1 of which, Ember, is huge and still living today).

November 2022, we got engaged! He surprised me with a proposal at Cedar Lake Winery.

In July of 2023, we bought our first house together. In this part of our life, we really started to learn (and still are) what the real life is like and how to manage it together.

Finally, we are months away from our wedding and officially beginning our life together!