Maybe we could say that we met during college at Lenoir-Rhyne University. Maybe we could say that we met through mutual friends. But why lie? We met on Instagram — the classic millennial love story.

You all know that you have people who you're friends with online just because you both go to the same places and know the same people... but you don't know each other. Well, we both went to school at LR, and we did have mutual friends... so that's how we met on a social media site. We stumbled upon an online friendship through being in the same virtual spaces with the same virtual people.

Cigi's Perspective:

One day, I get a random message from a random man.

"Hey," he said.

That was it. That was the whole first line.

Obviously the first thing I did was go to his profile and scroll through his photos. He had like 5 pictures, but at least none of them featured him holding a giant fish. So, I decided to message him back.

"Hey, what's up?"

After looking at his profile for a while, it dawned on me — this was the same guy who I'd followed on Twitter months earlier. I had been liking his tweets for a few weeks, (I'm a sucker for a good political tweet), and clearly he had noticed and decided to message me. I would later come to find out that he actually hadn't noticed me on Twitter at all and I was, in fact, being delusional.

We messaged back and forth for a few days on Instagram, and then decided to move our conversation to Snapchat. Something everyone should know about Austin circa 2017 — he still had a flip phone and never talked to anyone unless he was Snapchatting them from his iPad. I had his phone number, but it would take me days to get a text back. He would, however, answer my phone calls and talk to me in the middle of the night (this was the first green flag).

The real kicker to this love story is the fact that I actually tried to "friendzone" Austin for several weeks. I was pretty relentless with the fact that I "just wanted to be friends," and he was patient and respected what I was saying. Looking back now, the poor man was probably quite confused considering I would text him good morning every day and call him every night... but again, I "just wanted to be friends." I guess it didn't confuse him too much, though, because he still asked me on our first date in August of 2017, and here we are, more than 4 years later.

Austin's Perspective:

Where do I begin? It all started with a simple "Hey" on Instagram.

I noticed this cute girl on my people you may know recommendations. I clicked her profile, noticed she was an LR alumnae.. and I was an LR drop-out. But I thought maybe I'd have a chance.

Fast forward a few weeks, and BOOM! I scored a date. It took a lot of convincing, honestly, but the late night phone calls were worth it. Here comes this gorgeous girl stepping out of her car in my parents' driveway. I was ecstatic. We had an amazing date full of conversation, laughter, smiles... one of those dates that you leave and automatically start plotting how to land a goodbye kiss.

"This is gonna be so smooth," I thought to myself. But like most of my plans, things definitely worked out better in my head.

We say our goodbyes, I lean in for a kiss, and I literally trip, stumble, and fall into the girl who I'm trying to plant one on. Thankfully she laughed, and said "lets try that again."

A few weeks pass and we continue to go on more dates, then Cigi asked if I wanted to go to the Lenoir-Rhyne Homecoming game with her. The game was on the day of my birthday, and I couldn't think of a better place or person to begin the next year of my life with. The day of the homecoming game, she shows up at my house with a beer cake, which was really just 24 cans of Miller Lite glued together to look like a cake. Needless to say, we had a great time that day.

The next day, on October 8, 2017, I asked Cigi to be my girlfriend. Four years later, on October 10, 2021, I asked her to be my wife. What started with a "Hey" and a beer cake has flourished into a life together with a home full of love and Pomeranians (can't forget those little guys). Plus, she still buys me 24 packs of Miller Lite on a regular basis.

Honestly, what more could a man ask for.

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