Nearing the end of my sophomore year at Auburn University, I was hanging out with some friends on Toomer’s Corner one Thursday night. We’d just finished playing guitar and singing with a larger group of people, and the night felt like a mix of hope for the final half of our college experience and nostalgia for the first. As we caught up and reflected on the year, we did what guys do best—we talked about women we might be interested in.

“Well, there’s no need to worry. There are so many great and attractive girls at Auburn who are serious about their faith,” one of my friends said. As usual, we dove deeper into the topic than necessary. I don’t quite remember how, but someone mentioned Kendall McCallum. I knew her, but we weren’t close.

“Yeah, she’s beautiful. But she’s been dating the same guy for a while,” I said. My friend casually mentioned they had broken up months ago.

“So she’s available,” I joked.

...

I had planned to stay in Auburn that summer, not exactly looking forward to most of my friends leaving town. Around that time, I was invited to join a special church group focused on learning about global missions and God’s heart for the unreached. Hoping to grow in my faith and make new friends, I eagerly accepted.

The day of the first meeting, I received a text in a group message from an unknown number. It had the time and address, signed simply: “Kendall :)” With Kendall McCallum fresh in my mind, I thought, What are the odds this is the same Kendall leading this group?

When I walked in, to my surprise, there she was. And so began our friendship.

As a songwriter, my feelings for Kendall quickly became apparent. The first song I wrote for her was called “Tell Me How,” inspired by a conversation we had. She had asked, “What question do you wish you were asked more often?” I didn’t have an answer at first, and I don’t remember what I said. But I remember hers vividly. She said, “I wish people would ask me, ‘How do you want to be loved?’”

And there she was, just moments earlier a kind, attractive girl at my school, and now someone who wanted to be loved. Really loved. In that moment, I saw her differently. That’s when my true feelings for Kendall began to take root.

Now, Kendall will claim she had no feelings for me at first and that I was “down bad.” Don’t believe her. Maybe I didn’t play hard to get, but that’s because I knew what I wanted. Over time, we became good friends, but I kept my distance. Both of us had recently gotten out of relationships, and I wanted to respect our time to be single. But it became clear that other guys weren’t taking that same approach.

So, I made it my mission to make her mine. But not like the other guys. I had to do it my way.

I wasn’t the most flirty.

I wasn’t the most talkative.

I wasn’t a “try-hard.”

I wasn’t “Mr. Smooth.”

Instead, I was just me. I took opportunities to show her who I was when I could. Otherwise, I stayed quiet, trusting that God would bring His vision for my life to fruition.

...

Our church group planned a camping trip, and we stayed in a log cabin for the weekend. By the second night, I had pretty much given up on my feelings for Kendall—no progress had been made, and I was starting to feel discouraged. As I lay down in the small living room with a few others, I fell asleep feeling a bit defeated.

Then, in the middle of the night, I was jolted awake by a presence hovering over me.

“Scooch over,” came a soft whisper.

I realized it was Kendall. As she unrolled her sleeping bag next to mine, my heart started racing so fast that my body shook. Apparently, someone in the next room had been snoring, keeping her awake. But as the person laying at my feet started talking in their sleep, Kendall quickly realized that her problem had not been solved.

As she explained this to me, we shared a few laughs.

That night, we ended up talking for hours. She admitted she knew about my feelings for her, and for the first time, I was completely honest about the depth of my emotions and how I saw our friendship. We decided to talk more when the sun came up, and by morning, we had agreed to wait before we started dating. But that didn’t mean we couldn’t stay friends…

We couldn’t just be friends…

A few weeks later, we started dating. Never in my life have I felt the range of emotions Kendall has made me feel. But most of all, I’ve never been so in love and so committed. I knew she was the one I wanted to marry. And the rest is rock ‘n roll history…

Registry