Elijah and Hannah met in their 8am music theory class on their first day of college. Although they had several classes together their freshman year, they rarely sat near each other and only exchanged a polite “how are you?” when they saw each other around campus. However, at the end of freshman year, Elijah and Hannah began hanging out in the same circles. They would eat with a group of their classmates at breakfast twice a week, slowly getting to know each other. At the end of their freshman year, Elijah, Hannah, and a couple of their friends met to perform the songs they had been working on over the semester. Hannah sang “Stars and the Moon,” and Elijah was captivated.

Over that summer, Elijah had a daily commute to work and rehearsal, where he had time to call his friends from school. Although they were not very close at the time, Elijah decided to start calling Hannah. One morning, Elijah listened to the song “Stars and the Moon,” which made him think of Hannah singing it. He texted her, saying that the song made him think of her, and he wished he could listen to her sing it, instead. Hannah, however, took his text to be flirtatious, and started to form feelings for Elijah. Hannah started working for a summer camp, where she could only be on her phone late at night on her breaks. She would use these breaks to take Elijah’s phone calls on his way home from rehearsal. As the summer progressed, their phone calls got longer and longer.

One of the couple’s talking points was their love for “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.” Truth be told, Hannah did not really love the show, but Elijah greatly anticipated the next season. The two decided to watch the season premiere… alone, which Elijah somehow still found to be platonic. The couple continued this tradition each Sunday night.

It all changed one night as the couple texted. Elijah was “working” on his music, distracted by texting Hannah. Hannah decided to take a risk. Convinced by her roommate and best friend Anna, she decided to forego the texting and call Elijah in the middle of his practice. Elijah, delighted, took her call and walked around the campus. As they talked, Elijah walked by Hannah’s dorm and saw her waving excitedly at him. It was at that moment that Elijah realized he had feelings for Hannah.

Later that week, Elijah and Hannah’s friends, in an attempt to get them alone, had them come to meet together, only to ditch the two. Elijah, a true romantic, asked Hannah if she could take him to Walmart to get Triple-A batteries for his computer mouse. She happily agreed, and they had a lovely time at Walmart. As she dropped him off at his dorm, they remarked at how fun it was to spend time together. That weekend, the two got breakfast on their first “unofficial” date. The next week, they went to go see one of their professors in a show, just the two of them. During the show, Hannah bravely reached over and held Elijah’s hand. The two did not pay much attention to the rest of the show, as they were overjoyed.

A couple days later, the two decided to officially start dating on September 12th, 2022. Hannah immediately showed her unending devotion to Elijah by watching the absurdist comedy “The Bald Soprano,” which Elijah starred in, over a dozen times. About a month into dating, Hannah took Elijah back to her hometown, Chattanooga, to meet her family. She took Elijah to a beautiful waterfall, where he had the perfect opportunity to say “I love you” for the very first time. Unfortunately, Elijah was nervous, and he chickened out. He said it later that same day in the car when they got back to school. Over that winter break, Hannah flew up to Connecticut to meet Elijah’s family. The two performed together the next semester in “Seussical,” although they were only onstage together at the same time once the entire show.

After their sophomore year, the couple began the trial of long-distance. Elijah visited Chattanooga and survived white water rafting with Hannah’s father, which remarkably became one of Elijah’s favorite activities. During this trip, Elijah and Hannah played a “friendly” game of pickle ball with Hannah’s parents, Chris and Missy. Elijah and Hannah lost the first set, and Missy began to trash talk Hannah’s pickle ball abilities. This unlocked a fire in Elijah’s soul, and he made sure that Chris and Missy rarely scored another point. They handily beat Hannah’s parents in the next two sets, with Elijah celebrating after Missy missed a set point.

That summer, Elijah began his first professional theatre contract as Otto in the Madison Lyric Stage’s production of “Spring Awakening.” He thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the show (and enjoyed his first ever paycheck for doing theatre) and Hannah flew up with her mother to watch the show. However, Elijah felt a sense of completion when the show was over. For so long, his goal was to do professional theatre, but, after doing it, his drive to continue doing it gradually diminished. Elijah began applying himself more to his Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) classes (which is his minor).

Hannah has dreamed of being a theatre teacher since middle school. She has a way with kids, with babies stopping their crying as soon as she picks them up and little children coming up to hug her in public (yes, this has really happened). Her plan was always to pursue a graduate degree in Theatre Education to eventually work with middle schoolers. At the same time that Elijah was booking his first theatre contract, Hannah was brought on to choreograph a production of “Oliver Jr.” at Stagecraft Children’s Theatre, joining the theatre’s board shortly after the production closed and choreographing subsequent productions. Although focused on her undergraduate studies, Hannah became the hot ticket choreographer in the Anderson children’s theatre scene. Although Anderson University does not have an Education minor, Hannah politely requested to take Education classes, a request that was granted, with Hannah soon excelling academically.

After their junior year, Elijah and Hannah once again were briefly long-distance, only to come back to Anderson as Company Manager and Choreographer respectively for the AU Repertory Theatre. Many of Hannah’s kids from Stagecraft participated as campers, and Elijah and Hannah had so much fun working together. Over this summer, Elijah further felt convicted to pursue HDFS, specifically the realm of Marriage and Family Therapy. He registered for “Counseling Psychology” in the fall of their senior year. Hannah once again asked to take another Education class, and the couple enjoyed being together for most of the summer.

In their senior year, the couple’s future plans became clearer. As soon as Elijah started taking his counseling class, he realized that it was the profession for him. He began applying to graduate schools. Hannah began student teaching and acquired the hours she needed to begin teaching after school, and realized that she would be able to teach as long as she passed the Praxis exam. Feeling done with school, Hannah committed to the idea of going straight into teaching post-graduation.

On October 19th, Elijah took Hannah back to the waterfall where he could have said “I love you” for the first time. On that day, he promised to love her for the rest of his life and asked her to marry him. Thankfully, she said yes!

The couple auditioned for Anderson University’s production of “Into the Woods,” which will be their last production in their undergraduate. They were cast as the Baker and the Baker’s Wife, which they will perform on April 1-6. The couple is now excitedly awaiting grad school acceptances for Elijah and job interviews for Hannah. They plan to move to wherever Elijah is accepted, and Hannah plans to teach to support the couple as Elijah pursues his master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. The couple cannot wait to see where God takes them, and they eagerly anticipate tying the knot on July 12th in front of their family and friends.