Braxton and I met in 2020 during COVID. We were both in college, but at two totally different ends of 2 different states. At the time, I was attending the University of Arkansas pursuing a degree in nursing and he was chasing his dreams of playing college golf at the University of Houston. As many can remember, everyone was sent home during COVID. At the time I was sad to be leaving the college fun, but quickly came to love being back in my hometown which led me to meet Braxton.

Braxton went to high school in Texarkana and I spent some of my younger years living in Texarkana so we had mutual friends. I guess this is the part where I give my cousin Ladd some credit. One of our ‘mutual friends’ was my cousin Ladd. My cousin and I are thick as thieves, though I won’t usually say that. Can’t let him have too much to boast about. (If you know him, you understand me saying this). Although he lived in Texarkana and I lived in Carthage, growing up we always found time to hangout and meet each others friends. During my time back at home for the summer of COVID, I got invited to come hangout with my cousin and his cute friend Braxton. And I guess from there you could call it “love at first sight”. I met Braxton and instantly knew there was something between us. We’ve been stuck to the hip since. After that day, we never have spent more than 2 weeks without seeing one another.. and this is actually no exaggeration.

We spent the whole summer together meeting one another’s family and friends, traveling to numerous golf tournaments, spending days at the cabin and on the river. It was truly my favorite summer. I was so sure when we had to part separate ways and go back to school and be 9 hours apart that that would be the end of it, but Braxton made a promise to me. He promised we would never go longer than 2 weeks without seeing on another. And we did just that. Looking back, it’s crazy to think the amount of miles and events we worked around. We did long distance for 2 and half years - 9 hours apart, college golf tournaments and practice to work around, nursing school exams and clinicals, and everything else in between and somehow we never went longer than 2 weeks without seeing one another. We definitely burned up the roads between Fayetteville and Houston. I went through quite a few tires (again, no exaggeration.. I couldn’t actually count how many if I wanted to). Gas prices at the time were low, so I was thankful we could make the trips as often as we did. From then on we spent every summer and Christmas break together along with our weekends during school semesters we spent traveling to see one another. Leaving one another was always hard, but we just counted down the days and looked forward to the time when we would no longer have to do the distance anymore - I would say it was well worth it :)