The pandemic may have locked down the world, but it unlocked our relationship. Berry farms, hiking trails, and ice cream stands replaced our usual hangout location of the high school. These would continue for half a year before Brady worked up the courage to ask Paige out officially. Friends and family knew where the friendship was headed before we did. Our story didn’t begin with the pandemic, for that we’d have to take you back to middle school.

Although we had known each other in elementary school, we wouldn’t become friends until middle school gym class. As most boy-girl friendships go, the boy member developed feelings. At the time, nothing came of this, but it laid the groundwork for a continuously flirtatious friendship throughout high school. Ninth grade would see us reunited in classes as friends pointed out our flirty behavior. Afraid of rejection, Brady failed to act, missing out on his opportunities to lockdown Paige as a suitor.

That was until the two were removed from the classroom due to the pandemic. Typical embarrassing high school text conversations led to the aforementioned “dates” as our friends would label them. Due to the covid restrictions, Brady had a lack of competitors that allowed him to take his sweet time in asking Paige to be his girlfriend. Eventually, the words left his mouth and thus began this beautiful relationship.

Converting to long-distance throughout college provided the typical challenges of a distance relationship. Although, not seeing each other was nothing new. We had gone the first two months of our relationship without seeing each other due to Brady catching the virus and asynchronous school. Even the summer before college we wouldn’t see each other for long periods as we both went on vacations at alternating times. This early experience allowed us to create a template to navigate a long-distance relationship for four years. Thankfully, we will not have to go through long term distance again.