We met in the spring of 2021 at work. Matthew was a new pharmacist and I was applying to pharmacy school at the time. When I first met him, I knew instantly we clicked. Our first day of meeting we had our first disagreement, because anyone who knows us knows we have strong, deep, personalities that are so similar they clash at times. But we made it through. A short while after working a few shifts together, we started to build a friendship.
It was fun to work with him as we would bust jokes left and right and made the day go by faster. He eventually moved to the building I had been working in for 4+ years at that point and he was my boss. We made a great team and our friendship grew stronger.
After I left the area for school in 2022 and he was no longer quoted my “boss”, our conversations switched from work and friendship related to something deeper. We spent the tail end of the summer we had left before I moved 425 miles away and made the most of it. Every single second I was able to be home, I would stay at his apartment. I would come home almost once a month just to see him… and we weren’t even dating yet.
It took him until November 26th of 2022 to officially ask me to be his girlfriend. Our dating life was quite different from my past relationships as this felt like the first real relationship I’ve ever had. We went on trips, date nights every month, and spent every second being together when we could. I continued coming home every month for a whole school year long and he would make several trips up to me as well. I always joked with him about getting married, how I wanted his last name before I graduated, and all the little things in between. Additionally, I even told my youngest sister in 2022 when we first started talking more to put it in her notes app on her phone that if I don’t marry this man, I’m never dating again… well my dreams are finally to come true.
December 17th 2023 on a cruise to Bermuda, Matthew got down on one knee and wow was it magically. It was like every feeling you could ever feel in your life was in my body all at once the second I saw that ring.
We made it. We made it through 1 and 1/2 years of distance. We made it through the sleepless nights crying over when we would hold each other again. We made it through all the negativity thrown our way. And now here we are, engaged planning our dream wedding!