Candlelight rehearsals started and Emma and Jackson were assigned to sit next to each other. This photo was sent to Emma and Jackson's mutual friend, Alex. Little did either of them know what was coming.

It started in choir. People started telling Emma that Jackson was flirting with her. Emma told people that if he was flirting with her, he didn't know that he was and nothing was ever going to come of it.

Jackson asked Emma what she was doing over the weekend. Emma told him all her friends were busy or gone so she'd be baking muffins. Jackson asked if he could stop by. Emma told him he was welcome and introduced him to Noah Kahan. This BeReal was sent to Emma over text by at least 4 people.

By February, Jackson had asked Emma to go out to dinner. Emma said yes, but they forgot to take a photo that first night. This one from the SEA Superbowl Party is the first picture they took together after they started dating.

That first semester, they spent a lot of time in the library together. Emma had a favorite table and everyone (including Jackson) knew where to find her :))

When they weren't in the library, they were in Walker (Emma's dorm) hanging out with their friends, cooking, playing games, and watching Brooklyn 99.

Emma's dad took this picture at their first choir concert as a couple. They did get roasted by the entire choir before the concert, but this quickly became a favorite photo.

Emma managed to pull off the first surprise of their relationship (they both love to try to surprise the other) when she showed up to a frizz tournament in Tulsa for Jackson's 20th birthday. Jackson was excited Emma had come see him play. Emma was excited to no longer be dating a teenager :) Emma does say that even though she got burnt by the sun that it was a wonderful day :))

The spring semester had ended and they had one weekend before they were leaving for choir tour. Emma and Jackson spent it kidnapping Emma's boss's dogs (Otis is pictured and Goose was at Jackson's feet...thanks Langley!) and hammocking.

The choir went to Vancouver for tour!! Emma and Jackson spent a lot of time with the rest of the choir on the bus and at this point, they were the old couple of choir and weren't nearly as interesting as before. This meant the teasing wasn't quite as bad ;) Other than singing and exploring Vancouver with the rest of the choir, Emma and Jackson spent a lot of time takng naps on the bus and watching movies at night. It was a great way to end the semester before moving into a long distance relationship.

Emma and Jackson survived their long distance summer (where Emma worked at HoneyRock in Wisconsin and Jackson worked at TbarM in Texas) through lots of phone calls on weekends and letters through snail mail. But when they got back to JBU they were soooo excited to be able to spend time together in person again :) SEA events kicked off with a bang and while Emma was working the events, Jackson always made sure to be there :)) Emma and Jackson also spent a lot of time with their friends <3

Labor day weekend was spent split between hanging out with Emma's friends at her house and Jackson's friends at the lake. Shoutout Marisa for this pic that Jackson says looks like they're in a Disney movie. Also say hi to Sam and Matt :)

During the fall semester, Emma and Jackson started talking about what their future would look like. So they decided Thanksgiving was a good time to spend a holiday with each of their families. Emma took Jackson home to Topeka where they took family pictures, explored Top City, played lots of games, looked at Christmas lights, and most importantly...Jackson met Maple (Emma's cat).

The second half of Thanksgiving break was spent with Jackson's family at SOTO in Arkansas. More family pictures were taken, more food was eaten, more football was watched, and more caves were explored :)

Throughout the fall semester, many family dinners consisted of "the house plus the boys" and it became a place of safety and support for everyone. Emma and Jackson took their turns cooking dinner for everyone and cleaning up the kitchen.

By the time Candlelight rolled around again, Emma and Jackson were now dating on top of still being assigned to sit next to each other again. Safe to say, Emma was pretty sure Jackson was still worried about accidentally setting her hair on fire.

Before Spring Break, Cathedral Choir sang at a local church. Due to Emma's prior commitments, this was her last choir concert. Just like that, Emma and Jackson's choir journey together had come to an end.

Junior-Senior Banquet rolled around and Jackson managed to figure out how to do both JSB and frisbee in one weekend. And Emma finally got her "senior prom" since she had graduated in spring 2020 and everything had gotten cancelled. This time around felt much more real and Emma was so grateful to have Jackson's support in the hecticness of her senior year.

Emma graduated! Jackson spent a lot of time with Emma's family and friends this weekend. While they both were SO excited that Emma finished her degree and graduated from JBU, it also meant a lot of change was coming their way.

Emma spent Memorial Day Weekend with Jackson and his family in Flower Mound before she started her big girl job with DCFS in Fort Smith, AR. Emma and Jackson had another long distance summer in front of them. Though on Memorial Day weekend, Emma and Jackson did go to a ring store and look at rings :)

Jackson and Emma celebrated their engagement at what is now "Jackson's house" (where Emma and her friends had lived the year before) with their friends. It was a wonderful weekend, filled with joy, excitement, and processing what the heck just happened :))

Jackson proposed to Emma at the gazebo in Siloam Springs. Across the street from where they had had their first date 18 months prior and at the exact same spot Jackson's grandfather had proposed to his grandmother when they were students at JBU.