I met Madison through mutual friends at a beach party in 2020. Following the party, I obviously had to inquire about Madison and unfortunately my friend didn’t really know her, but lucky for us, July 4th was right around the corner. This was a perfect opportunity to invite her over for another party. At this 4th of July party, my friend’s entire family knew I was interested in Madison so the entire afternoon they were teasing me and giving me a hard time, but I did what any mature young adult would do, and I just accepted it and kept going, determined to win her over. Long story short, I didn’t win her over that night, but she was at least friends with me and knew my name. Over the next two weeks we would hang out in our friend group, and I would awkwardly message Madison on Instagram. Somehow, we became friends, but then heartbreak came. Sometime, mid-July there was a Young Adult party through some friends at another church. I went since I knew a lot of people and because Madison was going to be there. At this party, Madison had the audacity to come up to me RIGHT BEFORE I STARTED EATING MY DINNER and ask if we could talk quick. After 45 minutes of talking, my food had gotten cold, and her heart was even colder. She friend-zoned me and said she didn’t want to date. I was upset and had to awkwardly stay at this party the rest of the night like nothing had happened. Things were weird in our friendship for a few months but eventually we became super tight. After months of hanging out and talking, Madison still didn’t like me, and I told her that I didn’t want to be her friend anymore if we couldn’t date. After about a month of not talking, we were both sad about losing each other but I had to be tough about it. Madison reached out and told me she wanted to be friends again and I said “ok, but we can’t be as close as we were”. After a few weeks of this, Madison finally broke and told me she liked me. I took that opportunity and ran with it. We started dating on July 25th, 2021, and we fell in love with each other a month in. We have grown closer ever since that day and we are so thankful for the love and support we have from both our families, friends, and our church.