When I first came to church in 2020, I noticed a girl with glasses, and black hair looking at me out of my periphery view. Sometimes I would catch her just staring at me and zoning off. This would be almost every Sunday. I didn’t think too much about it because I didn’t want to overthink it. Later I find out this girl's name is Lucy. Then one Sunday, there was a girl who came to church with blonde highlights and I found myself glimpsing at her because I thought she was very pretty. I heard someone say "Hey Lucy!" to her, and in my head I was like what!!!. I was very shocked. The Lucy from church that I knew had glasses with dark black hair. I thought to myself there was no way this was Lucy. In hindsight, it was probably so messed up of me that I noticed a girl when she glowed up, but Lucy and I laugh about this to this day. Anyway, I didn't pay too much attention to it because I was too busy with grad school.

I got to know her more as time progressed and I started to realize she was kind-hearted and had a very spontaneous personality. Me being oblivious I didn’t know that there were certain things she would do to try to talk to me. In those talks that we had, it was very easy to communicate with her and I was able to be myself. I’m typically an introverted person but Lucy wanted to get to know me. We started texting and I started to realize she wanted to talk to me outside of just seeing each other in person every Sunday. In 2022, I started to garner interest as we went back and forth in talks, group hangouts, and church functions. Keep in mind I was still in grad school and I had a clinical rotation out of state and that would be for at least 3 months starting September of 2022. June I started to think about asking her out for a date. But I was a wimp. August 2022, I started to feel it to the point that every time I saw her I got nervous. I had to do it. I’m going to leave for Florida for three months to start my rotations and if I did not talk to her about my feelings before I leave that would be it. I planned out a text I would send to her but I held that text saved for 5 days. It was the weekend before I left to go to my clinical rotation. I hyped myself to text her and I finally did it. I met her at Starbucks just to talk with her. We were catching up and it was a good 30-45 minutes of doing that. In the back of my head, I had to tell her how I felt. After dragging the conversation for 40 minutes, I told her how I felt. It was nerve-racking but relieving at the same time. I just hope it was reciprocal. And it was, she expressed her interest to me as well and the rest is history.

I always knew about Ian because of his best friend, Jack Cruzan, who is also Ian's best man. However, we officially met when Ian came to church during COVID. Immediately when I saw Ian come out of his white Lexus I thought to myself that he was very good-looking and could not believe that he was Jack's best friend lol. I was very nervous to talk to him as I do when I have a crush on a boy. However, I mustered up the courage to speak to him when I "glowed up" because I knew that I may have a chance with him with this new look that I have. I would think all week before Sunday about how I would and could talk to Ian. Although I would reach out to him, and sit near him so that I could talk to him he never seemed to reciprocate the same feelings so I truly thought it was lost hope. However, months later Ian texted me while I was hanging out with Anika, who is one of my maid of honors. I told Anika about this and I immediately threw my phone across the room out of complete utter surprise. Ian never texted me first before..... like NEVER. At the time I was trying hard to get over him because I knew he was leaving for Florida very soon. We met the next day after he texted me and Ian confessed his feelings for me and we were long-distance for 6 months. Months of Facetime and calls were our dates and what I had looked forward to at the end of the day.