Jake & I had many, many mutual friends for all of our young lives but somehow the two of us had yet to meet. Until one Hot Summer day I was planning to hang out with Cooper (our good friend) when he said a few of his other friends (Noah & Jake) invited us over. We had no specific plans & I had heard a million stories of Jake & Noah, so I was excited to finally put faces to all those stories. We arrived at Noah's house where Jake & Noah were unloading big rubber pads from Noah's Truck bed. We all agreed it was too hot to stay outside so we went up to Noah's room to cool down. This is when Jake (effortlessly) made me laugh over & over & over again. All I could think of was how I haven't felt this kind of carefree & pure joy in a very long time if ever, I felt like a little kid with no worries, just enjoying this sweet simple moment to the fullest. In the midst of my uncontrollable laughter, I was able to barely open my eyes, looked at Jake's smiling & laughing face & I thought "I don't know why but I never want to lose this person." A few more interactions followed this one, each time I was consumed by an immense amount of joy & not just normal joy, but a joy that made me not care about anything going on in my life other than him & I in this moment. We both tried to ignore this magnetic attraction but...as we all now know, our pull to one another was not the kind you could ignore.

I am grateful everyday that the two of us took a chance on each other, because once we did, this great big world that we were getting into wasn't so scary but exciting. Jake made the future something worth working for, worth the pain of all the years before him, worth the turmoil that is yet to come, all of it is worth it as long as I have him.