I’ve never been what people would call a serial dater. Boys, in fact, had never been a big part, much less a priority in my life. From a young age, I’ve always had passion and drive leading my path, whether that be for dancing, singing, or acting. Boys and dating always took a back seat, and I was completely fine with that. It wasn’t until late into my college years that a certain quote started to fester in my mind. “Success is meaningless unless you have someone to share it with.” I realized how much I actually wanted someone to come home to, to share my wins and listen to my failures. Someone to provide support and comfort and for me to do the same for them. I decided to get serious about finding a partner in life.

For a while, I tried all the dating apps, the swipe rights, and the Saturday nights downtown. In this era, meeting someone organically or like they did in the movies is practically unheard of. On top of that, I was what my Father called “geographically undesirable”. I would spend essentially half my year in California and the other half in Arizona. Hope of finding the right one was beginning to dwindle. I dated my last dud and was accepting the fact that maybe God had a different plan for me. With this mindset, I decided to make the move permanent and said goodbye to Arizona.

Before the big move, I recall a random phone call from my Mom where she had mentioned wanting to set me up with one of my brother, Dylan’s, friends. She sold it by describing him as looking like Chris Evans. I remember immediately turning that notion down as, one, I had zero desire to date any of my brother’s friends, and two, I wanted to take a break from men in general. She accepted my reasoning, but I still saw the gleam in her eye. Finally, moving day came, and it was July 3rd, 2022. I remember this specific date, because I met Jake the literal next day. Looking back, I remember struggling with the idea of moving back, wondering if was the right decision for me. I would butt heads with my mother, debating whether Texas was going to be my next adventure. I know now that California 100% was the right choice, as I met the love of my life less than 24 hours after coming home. It was too coincidental for me to believe it was anything but fate.

July 4th was like any other holiday. My brother and sister-in-law were throwing a party at my Parent’s house and had invited their friends. I was chatting with my sister-in-law (Sierra) and my Mom when the door bell rang. Sierra perked up and instructed me to open it after confirming it was in fact Jake. I remember feeling nervous, opening the door to reveal the man that my family had been talking up to me. I won’t lie to you, it was an awkward greeting. I introduced myself as Dylan’s sister, to which Jake replied with his famous line, “I didn’t know Dylan had a sister!” I laughed it off and made small talk with him. I remember somewhat trying to keep my distance, as I didn’t want to fall into the “annoying kid sister who crushes on her brother’s friends” trope. Try as I may, my sister-in-law had other plans when she picked Jake and I to be Beer Pong partners. We actually did pretty well, despite the fact that I am normally terrible and also not a drinker. Must’ve been a little divine intervention.

Despite his charm and charisma, it wasn’t until later that day I was hooked (or so I tell Jake.) It was a warm Fourth of July, and the pool was definitely getting use. After an hour or so of swimming, my now fiancé turned to me holding the sunscreen. “Hey Jess, can you get my back?”

That was all it took…and the rest was history!

Prior to meeting Jess I was in a very dark place. To spare some of the details, I had lost who I was and didn’t really see a light at the end of the tunnel. It was probably the loneliest time of my life.

Thankfully, I had an incredible support system to help build myself back up. I had come to terms with the realization that life is too short to hold onto the past. Fast forward a couple of months and my life consisted of three things: working out, job hunting, and hanging out with friends. Near the end of 2021, I had an incredible opportunity to pursue a career with a degree I was just about to complete with my current company and on top of that I was spending all my free time with friends and enjoying life. It was incredible to think that nearly a year ago I was at my lowest, and now, I had found myself in what seemed like the highest point of my life. However, there was something I felt I was still missing, but just couldn’t put my finger on it.

Fast forward a few more months towards the middle of 2022, I am loving my new job, things are great with my friends and family and a few weeks before the 4th of July 2022, Dylan (for those of you who don’t know, that’s Jess’ brother) had hit me up asking if I wanted to come up to his parent’s house for the 4th. And you know what they say, rules be rules, so of course I was going to be there. What I didn’t know was that a plan was being hatched a few days prior to the party. Dylan wanted me to meet someone.

At this point I was in the best physical and mental state of my life, but I wasn’t really looking for anything (or so I thought). Still a little unsure of what I wanted I told Dylan “YEAH! I look forward to it, who did you want me to meet?” And that was the ringer. He said “I want you to meet my sister.”

“YOU HAVE A SISTER?” In the 5ish years I have known Dylan, and the occasional interactions with Pam and Todd at the time, I was astonished. I had no idea he had a sister, and I had been to his house multiple times, often unknowingly staying in her old room! So, at this point I didn’t really know what to say, since I was unsure if this was a test or not, but after thinking it over I figured he wouldn’t ask me if he didn’t mean it.

That’s when I found myself greeted at the door by not Dylan, not Sierra, not Pam or Todd but this girl I had never met before. I knew that I would be meeting Jess at this party, I didn’t know that this was her at the time, so I couldn’t be like “Hey! You must be Jess! Dylan wanted us to meet!” instead I just said, “Oh hey I’m here for the party”. Yeah, not my finest of moments...

Well, it turns out that it was Jess and I had missed the perfect opportunity at an introduction, like “Hey you must be the long-lost sister I ‘ve heard absolutely nothing about!”. Luckily Dylan re introduced us, for the real first time, as beer pong partners. I of course had to play my absolute best to impress this girl, because as we all know, beer pong skills are the defining factor when first talking to someone. But before doing so, being the very pale individual I am, I needed to apply some sunscreen. And thus, the famous “real” first words were uttered, “Jess can you get my back?”. And that’s the way the cookie crumbled.