I met Justin in the summer of 2019. I had moved to St Louis from Kansas that spring wanting a new adventure. We both worked at Mercy Hospital on the same floor. If you ask Justin, he would say the moment he saw/heard me he knew he wanted to be with me.

I was 22 at the time, and Justin was 20. Justin and I had a good working relationship, but it would take a little bit before we started hanging out. As a 20 year old, Justin still had some maturing to do. And for me, he wasn't really even on my radar. For one, I didn't want to date someone I work with and for two I didn't want to date someone younger than me. Since he wasn't 21 yet, he couldn't go to a lot of our hangouts.

The following year, a coworker of ours started an ortho hiking group. Justin and I were two people that always showed up. We became close friends. I was dating someone else at the time, and Justin became my confidant.

Things ended with the other guy, and Justin became my shoulder to cry on. Very quickly, he became the person I would go to. The person I felt the most myself around. My safe place. It may have took almost 2 years for me to realize it, but Justin became my person.

The transition from friends to forever all started with me innocently asking if he wanted to come over and play a game of Jenga. The rest is history.