Our story begins in middle school. We first became friends in 8th grade where we had many classes together. Matt always had friends over for pool parties, birthday parties, and bonfires. In 8th grade, I was finally invited to his house for a pool party. Our friendship started to grow from there.

Our friendship continued into high school and grew stronger (partially because I would do his homework). He would have parties at his house and I would always be invited. My crush on Matt continued to grow. I would always think to myself, "Matt Crown, he is so out of my league and would never go for someone like me". We would flirt occasionally but it would never lead anywhere. A trail connected my house and Matt's house and one day in high school he drove his quad over. I walked out with a quad helmet (my dad would have killed me if I went on a quad without a helmet) and Matt laughed. We drove the quad up to the popular Rainbow Rock and shared our first kiss. I blushed the whole day but nothing ever happened after that.

The summer between junior and senior year Matt would invite me and our friend Riley to go camping. Matt would come and pick us up on his quad and Matt and I slept in the same tent. Our second kiss occurred in the morning when we woke up. As much as I wished to be his girlfriend, it never happened. Senior year came around and it was getting time for the senior trip to Dorney Park. At this point, in our friendship, I had given up on us ever dating. One day in gym class Matt put his hand on my side and said "Are we gonna hang out at Dorney?" I looked at my friend and said "What do you think that is supposed to mean?"

It was the day of the Dorney trip and it was a night trip during Halloween time. Matt, myself, and a couple of our friends began walking through the park. I thought to myself Matt wanted to hang out with me, maybe I should make some sort of move. When walking through the park an actor jumped out to scare us and I put my hand around his arm. We continued to walk like that through the park for the majority of the night. (pictured below) He had one hand in his pocket and the other (the one I was holding) outside of his pocket. I thought to myself "He is so uncomfortable and probably does not want me holding his arm but doesn't want to be rude". But I took it upon myself to let go of his arm and grab his hand instead. Still thinking in my head that he is probably hating this. Once we got back to the bus we went our separate ways to our seats. Once again I thought to myself "This is not going to go anywhere, it never does".

A couple of days later Matt texted me "I had fun the other night" I texted him back "Yeah me too". Knowing in the back of my head this is not going to turn into anything. But the texting continued and we began texting every day. We officially transition from friends to the "talking stage". Then we had our first date at Red Lobster. Then on December 6th, 2013, Matt was waiting for me at his car in the student parking lot with flowers asking me to be his girlfriend.

10 years later we are finally planning our wedding!