Hunter and I first met in the JMU softball press box for a midweek doubleheader in April 2019. JMU was destroying Duke, so Hunter was sitting in a corner eating sour patch kids with his laptop shut, cracking jokes. We followed each other on Twitter and reconnected with I saw a job opening at Duke. I got the job and he was the only person I somewhat knew moving to Durham!

We became close friends quickly, getting to know each other through the 80-hour work weeks, including trips to Orlando and Austin + countless hours in the Duke Softball Stadium press box. A few months in, I found myself single and then the pandemic hit. I was slightly oblivious to Hunter's feelings about me, but after many hangouts in our COVID-19 bubble, it was clear that we were meant to be more than friends.

We didn't officially start dating until July 2020 when I went to Florida to join his family vacation. They loved me - at least his mom did - and once we got home, we had our ~first~ date at BarTaco in Chapel Hill. We kept our relationship to ourselves and close friends since we worked together, so I casually hard launched our relationship after moving Hunter & Rory to Memphis in August 2021.

Distance was hard. We saw each other maybe five times a year, making trips to Memphis, Nashville, Asheville, Durham and Richmond. When days were hard, Hunter was always there to cheer me up and remind me we'd be together again soon - that we wouldn't be long distance forever.

Fast forward to November 2023 ... Georgia & I moved to Memphis! I was nervous to be far away from home, but I was so excited for us to take the next step in our relationship. Other than the inconvenience of sharing one small bathroom, living together was a piece of cake! The children (cat and dog) got along, we were cooking together again and it was nice having someone to come home to.

On one Sunday afternoon, we walked around Dixon Gardens and Hunter asked me to marry him!! I cried (shocking) and we enjoyed a lovely dinner at Coastal Fish that evening.

Every day I'm more and more excited about our future! I can't wait to buy our first home, start a family and commit to each other for the rest of our lives :)

Anyone who has worked in college athletics knows the feeling. You’re on the homestretch of a long season, there’s no postseason in sight and you’re just trying to get across the finish line in hopes of getting a couple more hours of sleep a night before the calendar inevitably flips to the fall and the insanity starts all over again. With nine games left in the 2019 season and fresh off a LONG trip to Syracuse, N.Y., we embarked up the road to Harrisonburg, Va., for the final midweek road game and lucky us, we got to play a James Madison team that only lost seven games that year…

My expectations were low. Casey Price Fogg, our ops director and my road trip bestie, had the Sour Patch Kids loaded up and got our seats set in the press box. I finally made my way up there and when I came through the door, that’s when I saw Sammi for the first time. And from that point on, I couldn’t help but try to talk to her every chance I could get.

We left later that day after a pair of L’s and only wishful thinking that I would ever see her again. There was the Twitter follow and maybe a message or two, but I was left to wonder what could have been.

Enter: Fate.

A little further down the road, I was moving over to a new role, as were some others in our department, which opened a few doors of opportunity. There was a Twitter DM or two, a couple interviews and next thing you knew, what was once wishful thinking was maybe a possibility.

Fate again landed me back in the softball world, where Sammi presided. There were trips to Orlando and Austin. There were long days in the Duke softball press box. And there was the occasional joking at my inability to suppress a cough in a quiet office space.

Eventually, the world stopped turning due to COVID, but ours was just getting ramped up. Shared dinners, Schitt’s Creek, The Last Dance, some insane political coverage. The more time we spent together, the more my original feelings were confirmed: I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.

We made our relationship official in July of 2020, only to introduce one of relationship’s greatest threats a year later: distance.

To say the road to the present day was easy would be a vast understatement. Over two years of long-distance, of drives and flights to spend a couple of days together, long phone calls and agonizing over when we’d finally be together for real. Some days were easy, but most were hard. But here’s the thing about hard days: they’re not that bad when someone like Sammi is in your life, even if she was over 700 miles and 11 hours away.

November 2023 officially found us in the same city and from there, I knew it was just a matter of time. March 2024 officially found me talking with Nell (s/o to the GOAT) of James Gattas Jewelers. And April 2024 officially found me holding a ring in my hand and practicing a speech in my head.

May 19, 2024 still remains a blur in my head. In the words of Winston Bishop, “I am not a smooth man,” and boy did it show. I eventually got us to Dixon Gardens and found the spot where I would hit a knee and jettison us into this new chapter of life. I don’t remember what I said, I couldn’t tell you a single detail outside of what it sounded like when Sammi said “yes” and made me happier than I could ever imagine.

I never would have guessed that nearly six years ago, I would meet my person in a softball press box in the middle of Virginia. Life is strange like that. It provides an endless series of winding roads that take you places you could never imagine, throwing you for loops and curves that have you riding high one second and on the floor the next. And every now and then, it surprises you with someone that blows your mind, often in a situation you least expect it.

And for all this I’m thankful. Thankful for the twists and turns, thankful for ups and downs, and thankful for April 17, 2019. Because on that day I found someone so amazing, so beautiful, so strong that I am forever lucky to stand beside every step of the way in this journey.