As a sophomore in high school, the last thing I was concerned about was boys. I remember being focused on school and sports and a million other things.

One of those things included music. I loved being a part of different music programs and getting to explore different things about them, that's why I was in band where I would start to spend more time with my now future husband.

Dawson and I knew each other from a few other things like Track and Basketball, but we had never really talked or spent time together until we started to at Marching Band competitions and in the school hallways. As we started spending more time together, I slowly started to look forward to seeing him every day. Too bad my best friend did too and decided to call "Dibs". So while I may have liked him then, he was now officially off-limits. So we continued to just talk now and then and see each other throughout the year. When a blizzard ripped through one day and we got let out of school early, I went home and found a message from Dawson. One message turned into a conversation, and that turned into many conversations, and pretty soon we were talking all the time. We started to hang out outside of school and pretty soon the word "girlfriend" was being thrown around. I soon realized that this boy that was off-limits had slowly made his way into my life and I actually really liked having him there. After my best friend gave me their blessing, Dawson and I officially began to date.

We kept hanging out and talking and growing up throughout the years. Supporting each other through sports, music, dances and all the high school drama we could handle. Soon it was my Senior Year and College concerns entered. I decided to attend Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell so I could play both basketball and participate in Track and Field.

We learned to navigate through the "long-distance" of a whole hour away from each other during that first year. There were lots of trips home for football games and holidays, basketball and volleyball games for Sydney, and of course just one more Prom for his Senior Year. During his college search, Dawson finally narrowed it down to Morningside and Dakota Wesleyan to play football. Secretly, was I dreading the thought of having to cheer on Morningside in absolutely anything, of course, but I decided to be supportive and let him make his own decisions. Thankfully, he made the right choice and decided to attend Dakota Wesleyan University and play for the Tigers instead. We spend the next few years continuing to navigate the challenges of young adulthood and life, school and sports, and just learning to grow both individually and together.

While we are still learning how to grow every day together, we are learning how to enjoy life and learn what works for us. I couldn't imagine growing with anyone else and thank God every day for this blessing of finding my other half and being able to find the joy in life and laugh with him every day for the rest of our lives.