He was a boy

She was a girl

Can we make it any more obvious?

He played volleyball

She did gymnastics

What more can we say?

He wanted her

She'd never tell

Secretly she wanted him as well...ok that's enough.

We met at our alma-mater, Lindenwood University. I was on the Men's Volleyball team and Alicia, an inaugural member of soon to be National Champion Gymnastics team. The combination of Lindenwood not being the largest school and our athletic background, we had a little overlap in our day-to-day. Most often on the sand volleyball courts and the athletic training room. When we've shared the story of how we first met in the past it's often described as magical, dreamy, meant-to-be. Alicia walked into the athletic training room where my team was warming up for practice and commented, "WHOA look at this frickin big shoe...." And that was it, our first interaction, magical, dreamy, meant-to-be, I had her attention and I was already smitten. Next thing I know I'm orchestrating social scenarios on and off-campus to maximize the time spent with her in the remaining school year.

Graduation was just around the corner and uncertainty about our future filled my head. I'm from Ohio, she's from California, I had dreams to pursue a professional volleyball career in Europe, she had another year of college. It would have been so easy for an outsider to bet against us, but we made the decision to keep our fire going while I went to Greece and Alicia finished her undergrad. It was tough, it sucked, it was painful, but we learned a very important skill for a healthy relationship: how to communicate and how to love using our words. Personally, that kept me going through one of the toughest years of my life and it soon paid off. Things quickly turned around when we decided to take on the second year of Professional Volleyball, together!!!

In 2017, we lived in Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, where I played another season of ball, and man, was it an experience! Living abroad always has its challenges, but we were doing this together. We had the privilege to travel Europe, make friends from around the world, win a Czech Championship and live together for the first time...in a teeny-tiny flat, in a foreign city, with no tv, and no-one else to rely on for help. Alicia and I learned even more about each other than we could've imagined and built a strong foundation for what we have today.

Be it the stresses of school, athletics, injury and sickness, distance, closeness, or navigating foreign countries on our own, we will always have each other's back and will always support and love each other. We look forward to taking life head-on to overcome anything life throws at us, and promise to enjoy the little blessings life will bestow us daily.