It was 2022. I was finally wrapping up my last year of school, living the life of a Twitch streamer in a small, isolated winter wonderland. I had completely given up on making new friends. My closest friend lived 8 hours away, and we spent our time streaming and gaming, dreaming of making it big as content creators. Dating hadn’t worked out in the past, but I was done looking... and that’s when everything changed.

Streaming on Twitch was amazing because you could make friends with people all over the world. I connected with people from the UK, Germany, Indonesia, Ukraine, and even a cool Aussie named Andy. I met Andy through a small community of fellow streamers, and we all had a blast together. Little did I know, Rae also knew Andy through some of her friends.

One day, while I was streaming, Andy and his viewers came to watch me. That’s when I first met “raeofpositivity.”

From that moment, Rae and I became regulars in each other's streams. Whenever I went live, she’d pop by to hang out, and when she streamed, I was there to cheer her on. We started chatting on Discord, and after a week or two, exchanged phone numbers.

I’ll never forget watching Rae play Fortnite. She was so hilariously bad at the game, and it made me laugh so much. It felt so refreshing to see someone embrace being goofy and silly while gaming, which was perfect because I was just as bad at Fortnite! I realized I had found someone who didn’t take things too seriously and was just as comfortable being goofy as I was. That kind of freedom made me feel like I could truly be myself around her. It was something I had been missing for a long time.

As we texted and called more, calls became longer, and soon we were falling asleep on the phone. (Although she says I asked to stay on the phone, it's not true! She fell asleep on the phone first, then the next night I asked if she wanted to do it again, and of course, she was being coy and said, "If you want to." And I said, "Sure!").

Spending time with Rae became the most important thing in my life, and she quickly became my best friend. I wanted to do everything with her.

Although we were long-distance, Rae always felt like home. We’ve had our fair share of weird, difficult, and unconventional moments along the way, but I always knew there was something special about her from the very first time I saw her name pop up in my stream chat. From vet visits to family holidays, I've always known our journey was always meant to lead us to this moment — to say “I do.”

Whoa whoa whoa there, BABE. I see what you did up there.... Everyone, here's how it REALLY happened:

I had been living in my new-to-me house, in a new-to-me town, for about a year or two. I was alone, I didn't know anyone in this city and was feeling very isolated. I reached out on a couple dating apps and a dating group on Facebook, all I can say is YIKES.

In the meantime, I had been watching some Twitch streamers at the end of the pandemic and noticed how easy it was to make connections. Such a cool site that you can connect with other gaming nerds while they're gaming, then connect in little chatroom-like worlds on Discord. The beautiful thing about Twitch would have to be the connections across continents. I've met several people from different countries, different time zones, even different languages. I started streaming a bit, made even MORE connections, and had my own little life in the Twitch world.

One early morning as I'm getting ready for work, I popped into an Aussie stream, a mister Andy Cassarino, and was chatting with him and others for a while when suddenly, Andy was raided by no other than BadDOTBrown. (I ASKED ANDY AND HE ALSO AGREED THAT HE GOT RAIDED BY DOT, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND SO NICE TRY, FUTURE HUBS) He seemed cool, fun, and even witty. Something that definitely caught my attention. We exchanged some banter, I followed him, and took a look at his profile. Once I realized he was a Christian and seemed to have decent morals, I decided I wanted to get to know him a bit better. And THAT is where it starts.

One night, having a rough one mentally and spiritually, I hopped on Twitch to see who was on and could keep me company. BadDot was streaming, composing music, and hanging out with chat. We shared music and overall had a great night. God knew I needed that night more than I did. It felt different, like a real connection... I would often fall asleep to his streams since he streamed so late, there was a peace there. As I kept watching, I noticed he played Fortnite, the same game I was hooked on. I saw that he normally didn't play with people he wasn't close to so I figured we'd never play but definitely would chat about it in streams... Until I streamed it one night... And was absolutely terrible. He popped in as I was struggling and felt compelled to play with me, definitely to learn the ropes from a pro. Who knew we'd bond and fall in love while playing such a silly game.

When we finally met in person, it was the same day my cat Felix fell sick. He not only drove 5.5 hours to me, but also rode with me for another 2 to the vet for my kitty. He didn't complain, he didn't do anything other than be right by my side. Exactly what I needed. From that day forward, I knew I wanted him right by my side for the rest of my life. Thanks be to God, that's exactly what I'm blessed with.