Matt and I met in a chat app on November 7, 2021. During our initial conversation, Matt shared a series of amusing jokes, and I was immediately interested by his sense of humor. A week later, I asked Matt to watch Talladega Nights with me over Discord, and we really hit it off. We ended up talking and watching movies every night that weekend. And so the friendship started. We enjoyed weekly ‘Movie Mondays’ and daily text conversations. As the months passed, we started to develop feelings for each other, but we were both skeptical about whether a relationship was practical. With Matt living in Texas, and me living in an isolated area of northern Canada, the odds of making it work seemed slim.


Even so, we loved spending time with each other and were unwilling to stop. After six months of talking, we decided our connection was worth pursuing and made our relationship official on May 6, 2022. The first time we met in person was on August 12, 2022. I’ll never forget the nerves I felt when I first met him in person. My heart was racing when we sat down together, waiting for my luggage at the carousel, I felt my nerves melt away as he talked to me endlessly. The voice on the phone, the person sitting next to me, and his demeanor all blended together seamlessly. He was exactly the same person I had spoken to on the phone. We instantly connected in person, just as we had over the phone, and it felt as if we had always known each other.


We spent Christmas 2022 together in Texas and Spring Break of 2023 in Alberta. We kept up with our weekly Movie Mondays and daily chats while apart. Living in different countries was challenging. Each goodbye at the airport became more difficult, knowing it would be months before we could be together again. Naturally, our relationship grew more serious with each sad goodbye. On July 17, 2023, I was in Texas visiting on summer holidays and Matt took me out for a Movie Monday date. We went to the movies, ate pizza, and rode on the same Ferris wheel that we visited every time I came to town. He proposed to me on the Ferris Wheel and I said yes!


Shortly after, we began the journey of applying for a K1 fiancé visa. Our Visa Journey was more challenging than we ever anticipated with a lot of uncertainty of if and when everything would go through. The process is all so very confusing with the various stages of intricate forms and the indefinite timeframes. All we could think about is wanting to finally start a life together. After a year and a half of being engaged, we finally got our visa in the mail! It’s been such a relief, and we can’t wait to have our wedding and share it with our families.