The first show that Zach and I both worked on was probably Romeo & Juliet at Taylor University Theatre. I worked in hair & makeup, and Zach was acting in the show. During our time at Taylor, we had different friends, ran with different crowds, and had wildly different majors (art for me, history for him). For all intents and purposes, we were simply polite acquaintances.

However, a few years out of Taylor, we wandered into the same hobby – Tabletop Roleplaying Games. Namely, Dungeons & Dragons. I knew a few Taylor Theatre folks who played and connected with one of them about getting us all together to play a game sometime. After that game, Zach and I ended up in a group chat together and got to talking and… never really stopped.

Over the next few years, we played more games, had more conversations, made more mutual friends, and eventually met up in person in September of 2022. We went on what – by all definitions – looked like a date, but neither of us called it a date until, at the end of the evening, I blurted, “hey, was this a date?” He said, “yes,” and I said “cool,” and pulled the ripcord as fast as I could to get away from the awkward conversation I started.

About a week later, he let me know that he wasn’t really ready to have a long-distance relationship (something I wasn’t ready for either, truthfully), and we continued our friendship. We had at least one more non-date before I decided it was time to move back to the Midwest from Florida (honestly, God decided, I just said “okie dokie”).

Once I moved to Indiana, we got together with friends a few times before we finally decided it was time. We started dating in June of last year, but the years of friendship prior to that gave us a pretty good head start. We knew pretty quickly that this was God’s plan for our lives and could see the ways in which He brought us together. I’ve never been more lucky and grateful in my life.

Callie and I had met in college, at the theater. One of the first memories I have of her is when she brought in pumpkin chocolate chip cookies to rehearsal, and they were amazing. Several years later, we reconnected through a Dungeons & Dragons game organized by a fellow alumnus. We started talking swords and sorcery and found we had a lot in common.

Then, in September 2022, we met up in person. After a night of escape rooms and ice cream, Callie said four words to me that changed the course of my life:

“Is this a date?”

I told her it was, and then the specter of long-distance relationship logistics loomed over me. She lived in Florida, I lived in Ohio. Surely this was not the time, I thought, surely I was not ready, surely it wouldn’t work out.

But we kept talking and playing in each other’s D&D games, and in January 2024, Callie told me she was moving back to the Midwest. What once felt like fantasy became feasible. We started driving to each other, a mere two hours each way, and things started to click. After a few weeks, I realized I had to make a choice: set a boundary, or go all-in.

I don’t make decisions quickly, for better and for worse. This was no exception. But after soul-searching and praying on it, my choice became clear. On June 1, 2024, I (finally) confessed my feelings to her. We went on a proper first date a week later, and we’ve been growing more and more in love with each other ever since.