I think the most fitting place for our story to start is on the Booker T. Washington High School track team in spring of 2016. I, Jayden, in fact am not a runner but I was looking for a fun and easy 7th hour. Matthew is a track star, an All-American to be exact. While our goals on the team were different, we're glad this is what started the marathon.

We caught each others eye that spring of freshman year. Hung out at every track meet and cheered for one another in every event. While Matthew was ready to start our story there, I turned my cheek and we parted ways for the summer.

As sophomore year rolled around, so did our interest in one another again. It felt like we were always together, in between classes, at lunch and at practice. Matthew decided to give us another shot, but I routinely decided against it. That wasn't until I saw him try to talk to some other girls and realized I didn't love seeing that. So, playful high school flirting picked up again and lasted through the winter, but never turned into anything more. (I know, this is supposed to be a love story, right?)

While our story took a brief pause, it still wasn't over. Coming back to school that fall would change everything. At this point, it ironically wasn't track that would bring us back together, but rather the "football player and cheerleader" stereotypical romance.

Matthew was in his third year on the football team and I was fresh into my first year on the pom team. Something late that summer finally clicked in my head about what the relationship could be. And as persistent as Matthew was, I thought well why not finally give the poor boy a shot. If it works out, great! If not, no biggie, but I felt that since he wasn't giving up there must be something there, and boy am I sure glad he decided to stick with it after all those years.

Flash Forward to seven years later and I was more than eager to say that "yes" again, but this time to our forever.

Cheers to those high school teenagers who fell in love all those years ago, their future selves couldn't be happier.

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