Summer of 2020… it was the end of Covid summer and my friends decided to go to Alum Creek where there was a rope swing that would swing us into the water below. My friend Riley had told us that she invited some of her other friends. That is when I got a little excited because I had seen one particular friend on Riley’s Instagram account, which also happened to be Riley’s best friend, and I always thought she was beautiful. Her name was Jessica and sure enough she was one of the girls that Riley brought to the rope swing that beautiful afternoon.

Jessica and I ended up talking for a grand total of maybe 30 seconds that day and that’s being generous. You’re probably all thinking that I was super charming and witty right? Nope! I made fun of her for not being able to hold on to the rope and mansplained that if she didn’t want to slip off the rope she should just hold on longer. As you can tell, at the time, I really knew the way to a woman’s heart.

Within the next of couple days, I talked to Riley and told her about my feelings for Jessica. I asked if she could keep bringing Jessica around to hangouts so I could get to know her more and I told her NOT TO TELL JESSICA. I don’t know why I was so naive to think that she would listen. This, however, turned out to be a great thing because somehow Jessica felt the same way! We ended up hanging out a few times and going on a few dates, however it felt forced and somewhat awkward. I was still hoping to give it more of a chance but sadly Jessica did not feel that way. So we ended up going our separate ways.

Jessica had become part of our friend group so I would still see her fairly often whenever we all hung out. Once we weren’t dating anymore it really took the pressure off getting to know her and it became much easier. Riley asked me if I could take her to our senior prom and at the time I didn’t know if I was going to go and I thought that would be weird so I said no. After prom, I regretted my decision not to take her which made me realize that I was denying how much I still liked Jessica. That was the first time that I was honest with myself that I still had feelings for her.

We ended up both going to Ohio State and living down the street from each other. I was a finance major and she was a marketing major which meant we both had a decent amount of business classes either together or at the same time and the business college was a 20 min walk from where we lived. We would walk together to class for 3 years!

Through all of our long walks, Jessica still did not seem to be getting any closer to falling for me. My feelings for her, however had continued to grow stronger despite my best efforts to deny these feelings and move on. Eventually, senior year came around and I noticed something seemed to be a little different. She was more intentional in our conversations and she even agreed for me to help her with her resume which would have never happened in the past. Finally, after 4.5 years of being friends I asked her out on a date to which she said yes!!

The transition from friends to dating felt like one of the easiest things we’ve ever done. All those years of just being friends had created the foundation for our new relationship. All the uncertainties and doubts we had were gone within weeks. It became obvious to us very quickly that God had intended for us to spend the rest of our lives together <3 :))

After 5 long years of knowing each other and 10 months of dating, I asked her to marry me and she said yes:))

-Trent