I met Meredith for the first time in 8th grade after transferring to Jackson Academy in January. When I first got to JA, I didn’t know anyone. After about a week of not really talking to anyone, one of Meredith’s friends decided to come and talk to me in our speech class. Shortly after, I joined the friend group. I started to hangout with them and Meredith stuck out to me. I decided I had a big fat crush on her and asked her to be my girlfriend. After 5 months, our relationship came to an end. Having a lapse in judgement, I broke up with her in the middle of a show choir performance. We went through high school not being super close but remained acquaintances. Throughout high school I still thought Mer was the cutest girl at JA. During senior year of high school, 3 of us in our friend group decided to go to Mississippi State. Meredith and I hung out fairly often freshman year of college. After freshman year we grew apart. We just went our separate ways and became our own people. Late into junior year, I had broken up with the girl I had been dating and she had just been broken up with as well. As a joke she Snapchatted me asking if we should get back together. I’m not sure what I said in response but we ended up deciding to go get lunch at Two Bros in Starkville. Turns out people change a lot over two years. I couldn’t believe how well our lunch went and automatically that big fat crush that 8th grade me had came right back. A couple of weeks later my sister and I had decided to go out to Fondren Public and it just so happened that Mer was in town for a wedding. If you know my sister, she’s an open book and says exactly what is on her mind. She sat us both down separately and asked what was going on with us. Up until that point, I don’t think Mer was interested, but I sure was. We then started to hangout back in Starkville basically every day. I was ready for a relationship, but Mer really wanted to think hard before getting back into another serious relationship. We started dating on July 11th, 2021. After a year and a half with Meredith, it is crazy to look back and see all the times the Lord put us in each other’s paths. It was always at the perfect time. I cannot thank the Lord enough for my relationship with Mer and looking back on the past, I can’t wait for the future. October 21st, 2023 can’t come fast enough!

After hanging out casually and moving towards something more serious, Alex told me he wanted to take me on a date. Of course, I wanted to go on a date with him so I said yes, but I told him that it had to be a cool story so when we get married and have kids and they ask about our first date they’ll be impressed. So, no pressure.

Alex picked me up and took me to the Guest Room, a speakeasy in Starkville. I was so excited because neither of us had ever been to the Guest Room, so it was fun getting to experience it with him for the first time. After dinner, Alex told me he had a surprise for me. He started driving to campus and I started to get an inkling of what we were about to do.

Alex worked for the Athletic Department at MSU at the time and he had access to all of the athletic fields, so as we were pulling up to Davis Wade Stadium, I had a feeling he was about to take me on the field at night, something I thought would be SO cool to do. He pulled into the parking lot underneath the football field and sure enough, he grabbed some blankets out of his trunk and walked me out to the 50-yard-line of the football field where we sat and talked for a while.

MSU is so special to us because it’s where we grew into who God called us to be and re-begun our relationship. It was only fitting that we would have our first date on the 50-yard-line! To top it off, Alex was able to get us into the stadium for our senior pictures, so we were able to end our time at MSU in the same place that it started. It's safe to say that our kids will definitely be impressed when they hear about our first date!

Alex is intentional in serving me and serving the Lord, and he shows me what it looks like to truly follow the Lord with your whole heart every day. I love who he is and I can’t wait to marry him!