On July 3rd, 2017, I officially started dating my best friend, but our story starts way before that. I remember meeting Eli in 5th grade one day after school. Our paths crossed when a friend took me to Trailridge Elementary School for robotics, even though neither of us went to that school. Eli caught my attention before anyone else in the crowded room, jumping and shouting with joy over his robot successfully completing its mission.


Fast forward two years, and I met Eli again in middle school. We had the same lunch period and many mutual friends, but he was the one who made lunch so much fun. I never stopped laughing and sometimes even forgot to actually eat.


Our friendship remained pretty casual for the next four years before I realized I had the biggest crush on him. Throughout our entire sophomore year of high school, I did whatever I could to spend time with him; from asking him to teach me programming (which I still dont understand how to do), to asking people to switch seats with me so I could sit next to him at robotics dinners. I thought my flirting was painfully obvious, but as time went on, I was convinced he didn’t feel the same way.


Towards the end of sophomore year, we started hanging out more and more outside of robotics, always dragging another friend with us so it couldn’t be called a date. The more not dates we went on, the less our friend wanted to tag along. These slowly evolved into Eli driving to Waffle House to drink crappy coffee just to keep me company while I worked and staying up all night when I worked the overnight shift to make sure I stayed awake.


The day I finally realized that he might actually have a crush on me was when he drove all the way to Grandview to bring me Chipotle for lunch and didn’t ask me to pay him back. About two weeks after this realization, was our first date. He took me to breakfast and then to coffee where we spoke for HOURS. This was our routine for as long as I can remember, and it is still my favorite date to go on with him.


After 2 years of dating, we graduated from high school and made the difficult decision to go to separate colleges. Three months into our freshman year, I knew I didnt want to be away from him any longer. I started driving to Mizzou every other weekend to see him. By the end of the first semester, I had applied to Mizzou and enrolled to start sophomore year.


The three years I spent at Mizzou with Eli were better than I could have ever imagined. We adopted our sweet dog, Sashimi, found an amazing friend group, and started to really live our lives together. I fell deeper in love with Eli and knew I didnt want to live a life without him.


Not long after graduating Mizzou, Eli and I went on a trip to Ashville, NC. While we were there we spent a day at the Biltmore Estate. The thing I remember the most about that day was how weird Eli was acting. He kept walking behind the rest of the family and wanting to go in different directions. Despite my resistance to separating from everyone, he eventually managed to pull me away and took me to a beautiful lake where he proposed. It was the most magical moment I have ever experienced.


Eli has been my best friend for almost half my life. He is the goofiest, sweetest, most supportive person I have ever met. Above all, he is the love of my life. The last 7 years with him have been a dream, and I cant wait to spend the rest of my life with him.

Although Justice will swear we met as early as the 5th grade, my first memories of her are from the 7th grade lunch table. Little did I know that this funny, confident, sassy girl would become not only my best friend, but the love of my life.

Throughout middle school we had overlapping friend groups, but it wasn’t until high school that we forged a true connection through both class and our time on the High School Robotics team. It was in the hours and hours of working in the robotics shop that we got to know each other and fall in love. Instead of just the funny, confident girl at the lunch table, I found in her a deeply caring, intelligent, and fiercely loyal friend and later on significant other. During those first few years together I had to honor of watching her walk through some of the hardest times in her life with strength and grace working hard to find light in dark places.

We began dating the summer after sophomore year just 2 weeks before we took a 2 week trip to China it’s our robotics team. What a joy it was to be able to experience such a special trip so early on in our relationship. We got to spend time in some of the most beautiful and culturally significant places of China while spending time with our friends and each other. Throughout the next two years of our high school lives we would compete together, work together, and complete course work together while learning to lift each other up as leaders and competitors within our team.

As High School drew to an end, we began the hard task of planning to go to college. This journey would end with us separating for our freshman year. I would go to the University of Missouri-Columbia (M-I-Z!) while Justice stayed to go to the University of Missouri-Kansas City. This year apart was incredibly hard but gave us a chance to learn what it was like to be apart. Turns out, we didn’t like it. After one year, Justice transferred to Mizzou where we would finish out our college careers together.

It was in Columbia while completing our degrees in Electrical Engineering that I believe we really found what we wanted life to be. We saw the beauty in having each other day after day despite stress, finances, and everything life can throw at you. It’s was there that we got our beautiful dog Sashimi and began to view our separate lives as one life together.

We would soon graduate and make plans to move back to Kansas City and begin our careers with each other at our sides. Before our move back, we would take a trip to Asheville, NC where I had the honor of proposing at a beautiful lake on the Biltmore Estate. While the view of the lake was spectacular, I will never get the gleam of Justice’s eyes as she said yes out of my head.