January 28th, 2022 marked the day in which our lives changed forever. This is the story of how we met.

At the time, Nicole and I attended the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota. Neither one of us knew or had ever seen each other, as I was new to the University as a sophomore and Nicole had been gone for my first semester at UMary due to studying in Rome. Although, after Nicole's arrival, I did hear a few rumors from the baseball guys that a stunning new girl was back on campus after studying in Rome for a semester.

On Friday, January 28th, we were both invited by our friends to partake in Disney Quiz Bowl night which was hosted by UMary. Although both of us were reluctant to attend, we agreed to join our friends for a short while. Before the event kicked off, I elected to get some food in the cafeteria. As I was sitting alone in a booth, three girls approached me from my right. Two of the girls I had known as part of my friend group, but the third girl was a mystery. She seemed shy and did not speak, but was outstandingly beautiful. I attempted to make eye contact with her, but she did not take her gaze off of her friends or elsewhere in the cafeteria. It was as though she was intentionally keeping her eyes away from me. After a few seconds of standing there in front of me, she snuck off and was not to be seen again for the present moment. The girls mentioned that they too were attending the event, and would be competing against my team. A short time later the two girls said goodbye and left me alone at the booth. I sat there wondering how I could have missed seeing this beautiful mystery girl for all of my time at UMary. From that point on for the rest of the night, she was the mystery that I intended to solve.

The Disney Quiz Bowl event was being held in the lower level of the cafeteria. This area was accessible in two ways. One was by walking out of the cafeteria, down some stairs, and then into the room which was almost completely filled at this point. The second way was by taking the direct stairs from the main cafeteria floor to the lower cafeteria floor. This staircase was blocked off by a gate while events were taking place in order to fully separate the event and the main cafeteria. In order to skip the rush of people, my best friend Eric and I decided to jump the railing that blocked off the direct entrance to the lower cafeteria from the main cafeteria floor. Not only did this give us the opportunity to scan the room for open seats, but it also gave me the opportunity to scan the room for the mystery girl I had previously laid my eyes on. Eric and I had found two of the only open seats in the whole room near the base of the staircase we came down. We quickly sat down and declared our territory. I immediately began to scan the room some more, and eventually found what I was looking for.

I found the mystery girl sitting next to a bunch of girls that I knew from the friend group, including those I had spoken with moments before. The only catch was that with my seat placement I naturally faced away from her. She was also on the other side of the room, as far away from me as you could possibly get. For the rest of the event, which lasted roughly an hour, I had made efforts to grab her attention. I turned my chair to a diagonal position that allowed me to see both my table and the front stage, which also happened to face me towards this girl. I also volunteered to walk up to the stage to individually drop off each of our answers, hoping that she would watch me. Instead of answering the trivia questions presented, I kept peeking at this girl, hoping she would peek back at me. With no such luck, I was down to my last option. I took out my phone and texted the girl sitting directly next to the mystery girl.

I said, "Who's that cute girl you're sitting next to?"

She replied, "Which one?"

"The one to your right." I said.

"She's my friend" she reluctantly responded.

"Does this friend of yours have a name?" I responded.

"Nicole"

"Does she have a last name?" I pushed.

"Yes."

At this point, I knew the the mystery girl's name, and that's all I cared about. It was a start.

After the event had come to an end, Eric and I decided to head back up to the cafeteria for some late night food. I had been planning on hanging out with baseball guys for the remaining hours of the night, but thought I would get some food in before hand. As I arrived to the top of the stairs that we had previously went down, I noticed this "Nicole" sitting at a table with a friend of mine. Some could say I "just so happened" to pick the table directly next to this Nicole figure. Eric and I dropped our stuff off, got food, and returned to the table. As we began to eat our meal, the girl that was sitting with this mysterious "Nicole" began conversation with me. Almost immediately, Eric began conversation with Nicole. In no time, the two girls moved from their table and joined us at ours.

Although we planned on staying for less than fifteen minutes for a meal, all four of us ended up staying for over three hours. We all talked, and talked, and talked, and talked more. Needless to say, I finally solved the mystery of Nicole. Well into the morning hours, we decided to finally separate. We all left the cafeteria as a group, and split into two's the closer we got to our opposing lanes of travel. Before fully separating, I gestured to Nicole for a handshake. She reached out, took my hand, and shook it with a gleaming in her eyes that I had been searching for.

I said, "Nicole, it was nice to meet you. I hope we can hangout some more later."

She responded, "I agree. It was nice to meet you as well."

Immediately after departing following the handshake, Eric turned to me and said, "She's gorgeous, isn't she."

"Yes, she really is." I replied.

Eric and I then made our way downstairs where we met up with our friends Isaac and Liam. I immediately downloaded Instagram, searched Nicole Rehder in the search bar, and sent her a direct message. We talked for a few minutes, I gave her my number, and we agreed to lunch on Sunday, which was just two days later. As I was texting Nicole, I heard my friends, including Eric, talking about her.

Eric exclaimed, "She's gorgeous!"

Isaac said, "Eric, did you get her number?"

"No," he said, "but I bet Dalton did."

I slowly looked over with a smirk on my face and said, "Yeah, I did actually."

Since our first "date" on that Sunday, I have experienced love like no other. Love that is selfless, compassionate, and merciful. It is love that meets the likes of Jesus. I have only been able to describe this love as agape love.

Agape love is the most distinctively Christian form of love. Used by Christ to describe the love among the persons of the Trinity, it is also the love he commanded his followers to have for one another (John 13:34-35). It's the fatherly love of God for humans, as well as the human reciprocal love for God. It is totally selfless love, which seeks not one's own advantage but only to benefit or share with another. Agape is total, committed, sustained, and self-giving love. Jesus models agape love for us when he died on the cross.

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