If you ask either one of us, we would tell you that when we met, neither of us would have ever seen this coming in a million years. And yet, here we are, years later, knowing that we are exactly where we want to be and, more importantly, that we are with exactly who we were meant to be with.

I was introduced to Sara through a mutual friend over the summer of 2017. I was under the impression that I was some sort of hotshot going to start his football career for the Griz, while she was in the middle of her undergrad at Linfield College in McMinnville, OR, just coming home for the summer.

We would go on one coffee date that summer and that was presumably it. She went back to school, I started college, life goes on, right?

WRONG

Fast forward to 2018, she's home for the holidays, we bump into each other, decide to go on a hike up Blue Mountain. We had a great time, but as she was still going to school in Oregon, and the concept of long distance made me a scared little kid, that would pretty much be it again.

Okay, seriously. We've tried twice, distance was a factor both times, and we were at different points in our lives. Not gonna happen, right?

WRONG AGAIN!!!

Fast forward even further, now its Summer of 2020. Covid is hitting everything hard. I am going into my junior year with the Griz, but everything was shut down the previous March due to the pandemic and would be for a while, as we wouldn't even play a season that year. Eventually, with the world slowly reopening, it was time for a summer job to alleviate the boredom until football started back up again. I took a housekeeping gig at The Resort at Paws Up out in Greenough, MT. I walk in to work one day, and who do I see working as a dishwasher in the employee kitchen?

My future wife.

Freshly graduated from Linfield and back home, some higher power gave us both the idea to work at the same place and reconnect for the third time. She was back home and saving up to go to grad school, and we decided to get together and catch up. We went out for ice cream, and from there, everything just changed. All of a sudden, she was more than just someone I was seeing for the summer. She was someone that I knew I wanted to be with. The days over the summer that I didn't talk to her felt like something was missing, and the days that I did just felt complete. We could go out more and more over that time and it didn't take long for me to realize that this is somebody that I just can't let go. If it's the last thing I do, I would never let her go ever again.

We began dating August 12, 2020, despite the fact that we were starting out long distance as she went to grad school in Bozeman while I was in Missoula finishing my undergrad and wrapping up my football career. We were both very nervous starting out in a distance relationship, who knew how long it would last? Turns out, it would last the rest of our lives.

Through the past couple years, we have carved out the most important relationship of our lives, despite the notable handicap of being three hours apart for over a year of that time. We learned to make time for each other in any way we could, logging months worth of FaceTime dates, weekend trips to see each other, and any acts of service we could accomplish from 200+ miles apart.

During that time, I have truly come to appreciate Sara for her many amazing qualities that are just too good to let go. As our lives have run their course, I have seen firsthand just how determined, supportive, inclusive, kind, funny, caring, and perfect for me she is, along with 100+ other amazing qualities. And seeing these things up close has led me to fall even more in love with her every single day. I am more certain that Sara is the woman I will spend the rest of my life with than I have been about anything else.

Being with Sara has taught me two things that I now believe beyond all doubt. I believe that everyone has their person. That one person who just makes it all worth it, and that just by being in your life, make it so much better. I also believe that even if you meet your person and it isn't the right time, just be patient, as the right time will come. A higher power knew that Sara and I were meant to be together and kept throwing us at each other until we figured it out too.

Sara - you are the best thing to ever happen to me. The best decision I ever made was being with you. You have accepted and loved me for who I truly am, and for that, I will be forever grateful. I promised a long time ago that I was going to love you forever, and this is a good time to reaffirm that. You are my person. Always have been, always will be. I love you so much and cannot wait for you to be my wife. -bfg

Thank you all for reading our story! I hope it brightens your day as much as Sara has brightened my world, and I hope to see you there when we say "I do"!

-Colton