When I was 16, I told Josiah I loved him. I kept this to myself. So, when a month later my parents told me, "Don't go telling that boy you love him, you are too young to know what love is," I giggled knowing it was a little late for that. Now, I am proud to say that 16-year-old girl did know what love was. That love was only a fraction of the deep love I feel now, but I definitely knew what I was talking about. I mean, that's why you are even reading this!

I was just a sophmore in highschool when I fell for Josiah. We were at band two-a-days in July of 2020 when I began to realize the drum major was pretty cute. He started giving me a hard time throughout the week and naturally I did the same back. I remember at one point our close friend Rebecca and I were making a poster for our section and Josiah came up to talk to us. We were all chatting when Josiah stole my phone. He tried to unlock it and I was very confused why he wanted to. I assumed he was just messing with me. He asked what my password was but, I would not tell. After quite a while (and some help) he opened it. I tried to take it from him but he ran off. I followed him in an attempt to get it back. To my surprise he went straight to the phone app, typed in a number, called it, hung up, and handed my phone right back to me. I was so confused. Was the cute drum major trying to get my number? A text from an unknown number a few minutes later saying "Clever huh?" confirmed my suspicions. We texted off and on for a month. After school started one of my friends and I attempted to prank Josiah and see if he had feelings for me. We decided not to go through with it. Josiah ended up asking me who I had feelings for and in a bold moment, I admitted it was him. He said he felt the same. Neither of us were ready to date so we began talking. Fast forward to the following November and Josiah asked me to be his girlfriend.

Now years later here we are! If I spent time talking about every moment of our story that meant so much to me I think we would have a novel. So much has happened in that in between; firsts, lasts, ups, downs, graduating, being at different schools, revelations in our faith, family struggles, admissions of love, being at the same school again, travels, changing of plans, and lots of looking toward the future. Now we are finally at that future we have prayed for since we were only teenagers. And I am beyond excited to step into what is next. We grew up together and now we get to grow old together. :)