i met han when i was 13, on facebook, before it was cool. her best friend and i share a birthday, so she messaged me saying happy birthday and that it was also her friends.. after a few days of back and forth on the computer (this was before smartphones) we exchanged phone numbers. we would then start to get to know each other and break down life and how hard it was at the time (we were 14). we then started talking on the phone every night until at least 1 a.m.; that was until her parents cut her phone off at 10 p.m. sharp every night. (sorry Keith and Julie) Hannah then downloaded an app on her new iphone that allowed us to go around her blockage (sorry again). we would go on with this trend for years, she would become my best friend that i never knew i needed, she became a piece of me i knew was missing, i just never had to courage to say that. she would constantly check in with me on how life was and get upset that i was not sharing everything with her. she would wake me up every morning with a sweet good morning and close out every night with me. it was my favorite escape from the world; talking to her, making dumb jokes that she would eventually get tired of, and helping me figure out what i wanted in life; her.

i tell everyone that the moment i knew she was the one was at our first "real date" which happened to be chik fil a, i would tell everyone that i knew when she slurped the last teeny bit of mustard out of the packet, but now that i have been looking back and reflecting; i realize i had fallen for her much before then. she would become a staple of my life and help through real ups and downs that not most kids went through. even when i would keep things to myself in the bad times, she always made an impact. she has always been my first and last love.

life would get a bit more stressful following our graduations, hannah would go to ABAC to begin her college experience and i would graduate with the help of julie (senior slump is real y'all). i would then watch hannah as she grew through her time at abac, and then decide she would want to go to UGA, making our relationship long distance. this would come with many hurdles and debris as you would expect, but once again, we made it through to the other side, happier and closer than ever before.

she always expressed to me that she wanted to be engaged by the time she graduated, as she had always envisioned it being that way. what she didn't know was that 2020 was bringing an absolute curve ball she wasn't going to imagine; With the start of her last semester as a college student, the pandemic swept through the country and brought everything to a screeching halt. all of the classes went online, all of the people went inside and all the emotions flared up. UGA announced that it was going to cancel the graduation walk. this brought my proposal and hannah's future to a holding pattern. my original plan of a proposal was to do it when we all saw her on graduation day, allowing for her to have some hardware to walk across Dooley field in, but i had to reel it back in and come up with another plan, thanks to her very special friend she made in athens, syd. Hannah was Syd's maid of honor and to really capture the moment, han had an appointment to get their pics done as a gift at what was supposed to be syd's wedding shower. but what hannah did not know was that i was in contact with sydney and the photographer to prepare for our proposal under the arch. its a tradition at UGA to not walk through the arch until you are an alumni, so the first time hannah rucker would walk through, we would start counting down the days until we changed her last name to Harrison!

On November 13, 2010 I was at my best friend Lacey's house hanging out for her birthday. We decided to hop on Facebook to see who shared the same birthday as her - lo & behold, Drew's name came across my screen. I thought he was cute,so the only obvious option was to message him to tell him happy birthday. It went a little like this:

Me - "Happy birthday! Today is my best friend Lacey's birthday too!"

Drew - "Cool"

And that's it. I was hooked.

lol in all reality I wasn't hooked until a few days of us messaging back and forth. Back when we were in middle school, it was “cool” for the kids to pretend to be "hubby & wifey," and Drew was my hubby. That is, until he called it off… the next day. It was all fake, but I was seriously heartbroken. (I know, I'm dramatic)

To make a long story short, Drew friend-zoned me hard... for three whole years. Even though he insisted on us staying friends, he would always flirt & say the sweetest things to me - it was so confusing! maybe that's why i never gave up? i knew he liked me too, he just wasn't ready - at least, that’s what I told myself. After all that time of me proving to him that I wasn't going anywhere, on July 23, 2013 he decided to give me a real shot at being his girlfriend (finally).

We dated all through high school & college. It wasn't always easy going from seeing each other every single day to hopefully once a week, but we made the best of every moment together! If you know Drew, then you know he is intentional with his actions & his words. Drew never failed to make me feel special, even if I was miles away. He would do little things to show his love for me like leaving notes hidden in my apartment for me to find once he left. I’ve known I was in love with Drew since 2010, but each small gesture he would make made me fall deeper and deeper.

In December of 2018 I remember telling Drew that I was ready for him to propose. It didn't have to be right then (even though I secretly wanted it to be), but I wanted him to know I was ready. So ready, in fact, that I took it upon myself to start getting my nails done every month so that they would be ready at any moment! Little did I know that I would be paying to get my nails done for a year and a half before he finally popped the question (eye roll) (lol).

If you know me then you know that I'm pretty outspoken & impatient. Two qualities I'm not always proud of, but that being said, poor Drew had to hear me whine more than I'd like to admit! He kept telling me he had this grand plan, but his plan wasn't happening as soon as I wanted it to! He would even joke that the each time I brought up a proposal, he was pushing the proposal back another day lol. So, just like those 3 years before he asked me to be his girlfriend, I had to wait. Again, waiting is not necessarily my strong suit. Still, I knew he was the one I’d one day marry, so what was there to do other than wait?

Then, COVID happened. Story of everyone's life, right? According to Drew, his original plan was to propose to me at my graduation. When my bff, miss 'Rona, came around, though, graduation got canceled. It was hard having graduation be canceled, but after hearing that news, Drew TOLD ME his original plan was to propose at graduation. When there was no graduation, there was no ring & I was very upset to say the least. Little did I know that he never stopped brainstorming the perfect proposal.

June came around and I was throwing my best friend, Sydney, a bridal shower. COVID messed up our original shower plans, so we got as many friends together as we could and started planning what we could. Plans kept changing everyday leading up to the shower - the only plan that didn't change was this big surprise I had for a photographer to meet us on campus to take pictures of our friend group all together since that would be the last time we were all on campus! The night before the shower, Sydney told me that she just wanted to get her nails done, do whatever surprise I had planned for her, and then go eat - keep it simple!

What I didn't know was that Drew had reached out to Sydney, told her my plan to surprise her with the photographer, and asked if she would mind if he could propose during pictures. As you know, Syd told him he could hijack her shower (I'm so thankful she didn't mind!!!) and reached out to the photographer to tell her the new plan. Then she reached out to me to change plans to getting our nails done so that, unknowingly to me, my nails would be fresh for the proposal. I remember walking through campus leading Syd to the photographer all excited that I pulled off this fun surprise, only to find out later that she knew the whole time!!! Haha!

At UGA, it is tradition for students to walk through the Arch after graduation. It's something all students look forward to doing when they finish their degree. With COVID, my friends and I hadn't been on campus since graduation to walk through. We decided for the last photos of the day, that we would walk through the Arch together for the first time.

We walked through and all of a sudden my friends are running away from me, and Drew is walking up to me. All I could say was, "What are you doing here? You look nice!" LOL *cringe*

After that, everything became a blur - all I know is Drew looked nice & got on his knee to propose! Right after the proposal, we were standing all together screaming, jumping, hugging, just doing all the celebrating we could do when a huge gust of wind came through throwing leaves and pinestraw in our faces. Then the bottom opened up out of the sky and it began POURING RAIN. Drew looked at us and said, "I'll see y'all at dinner" and just left us there standing in the rain, hahaha! I didn't care, though, because I just got engaged after waiting for what seemed like forever. Nothing could rain on my parade, not even real rain. My girls and I ran back to my car & went to a celebratory dinner at La Pa (if you know you know). Then we facetimed all of our family & friends back home who were waiting on stand-by to hear that the proposal had finally happened.

Now, here we are planning a wedding in Wyoming! Life with Drew has always been an adventure, & I can’t wait to embark on this new adventure of life as Mrs. Harrison!