February, 2022

Tristan and Madison's story didn't begin in the most conventional of ways. They knew of each other through an on campus ministry called "The Navigators" at UCF. They shared mutual friends and would talk every now and then, but weren't anything more than friendly acquaintances. Their group of friends would all hang out and go to movies, go out line dancing, and find ways to share fellowship. However, this isn't the perfect setup that some would think. Tristan had just gotten out of a relationship, was trying to heal, and trying to make some new friends. Madison wasn't looking for something like that, and neither of them had an initial spark of attraction towards one another. Their friend group just continued on as normal, hanging out when they could, and just enjoying good times together. By the end of Spring, Madison and Tristan became a little bit closer because they had some shared interests of Photography, Marvel, line dancing, and more. They communicated like normal friends would, nothing more, nothing less.

May-July, 2022

Tristan had moved home for the summer to serve as an intern at his church, while Madison was still in Orlando, as she lived with her parents. Tristan and Madison kept in touch, same as they did with all of their friends. Their friend group would still go out almost every weekend to go line dancing and Tristan would make the drive every week to join everyone. Everyone would gather together whenever they could throughout the summer, whether it was a Stranger Things watch Party, or a night at Cowboys, this group of friends was close.

August, 2022

Everyone is back in town full time as classes are about to begin at UCF. One day, Tristan is looking at his class schedule and he decides to look at the "people" tab in Canvas, to see if he knows anyone in any of his classes. Coincidentally, as he's scrolling through his first class, he sees Madison's name. He's excited to see that there is someone he knows in his class, and he sends Madison a text to tell her. Then he looks at his next class, then his next one, and then his next one. Completely by coincidence, Tristan and Madison had the exact same class schedule during their fall semester. Naturally, they begin to spend a lot of time together to meet up and do homework and study. They learned a lot about each other during this time and their friendship began to grow a lot stronger. However, there were still no romantic feelings involved. It was a purely platonic yet strong friendship.

October, 2022

A couple of months into the semester, Madison and Tristan have become strong, close friends. However, the rest of their friends began to take notice of this, and began to ask them a lot of questions. "Do you like her?", "Do you like him?" and just about every question one could think of. However, they were very casual about their friendship and not afraid to talk to one another when someone else had asked them a question. They wanted their friendship to remain strong and didn't see a point in entertaining something that was purely being advised and suggested by other people. They didn't want to have feelings that weren't their own. Tristan prayed for those conversations from his friends to cease, but they didn't.

December, 2022

Madison and Tristan are about to pick up one of their friends to drive to St. Augustine for the weekend to meet up with the rest of their friend group, but as they wait for him to be ready, they decide to go out and get dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse. Nothing out of the ordinary. However, as they're eating, Tristan saw something different in Madison that he hadn't seen before, and realized he felt an attraction towards her. He kept it hidden because he didn't know how to feel about it and what to do with it. They continue on to St. Augustine for the weekend, but on their drive back, it was just Madison and Tristan. They talked about everything their friends had been saying the last few months, and Tristan very nervously confessed what he began to feel a few nights prior. On December 13th, as the car ride back to Orlando came to an end, Tristan (shaking with nerves) asked Madison on their first date, which took place 3 days later, on December 16th. They went to Arcade Monsters, got ice cream, and walked around the park that night. It went well, but it was strange realizing the context of them hanging out was very different from anything they had ever done together.

January, 2023

They had continued to go on a few dates, and things seemed to be going well. However, from January 9th-11th, Tristan could tell there was something off. Madison wasn't communicating as often, and he grew some concern. That concern was warranted, though. January 13th, Madison broke off the pursuit of anything more than friendship with Tristan, saying that she felt this was the answer when she had thought about it. Tristan was crushed, as he felt like he could be losing his best friend and that it would take a little bit to get back to that point. Their love story seemed over before it even began.

The next night, their friend group went out to Cowboys to celebrate Madison and her twin sister, Morgan's birthday. Tristan goes, as he knows Madison wanted him there, but he dreads it. Madison is attached at the hip to Tristan almost all night until she leaves, but they don't say much to each other, and the encounter was awkward. Later that night, Madison sends Tristan a text asking why he didn't ask her to dance with him, to which he replied that it was difficult considering the circumstances and her explanation for breaking things off. Then Madison realizes she didn't fully explain everything.

The next morning, Tristan facetimes Madison, and she explains that there was a lot of fear in her decision. Fear of losing her best friend, fear of what could happen if they broke up, and fear of Tristan no longer being her best friend going into their next semester of classes together. Tristan admitted he was scared too, as it terrified him to ask her out. However, that conversation resulted in them picking up where they left off in their pursuit of dating, but Madison refused to become official over the phone. The next night, on January 15, 2023 (Madison's Birthday), Tristan asked her to be his girlfriend, and it was one of the best things he's ever done, as it turned into a beautiful story between two friends who fell in love in the midst of an unlikely set of circumstances.

Key dates:

- On January 27th, 2023: at 12:42 a.m after a long night at Cowboys, they had their first kiss.

- February 26th, 2023: Tristan tells Madison he loves her for the first time. When leaving her, a song he had never heard before called "Marry That Girl" by Easton Corbin began to play in the car, and that was the moment Tristan knew he never wanted to let Madison go.

- March 9th, 2023: Madison tells Tristan that she loves him for the first time.

- July 2nd, 2023: They flew to Memphis together and Madison met Tristan's Aunt Mo. Spending the 4th of July on Broadway in Nashville together, creating one of the many core memories that they now share.

- February 16th, 2024: Tristan asked Madison's father for his blessing of her hand in Marriage.

- April 20th, 2024: Tristan bought the engagement ring.

- May 10th, 2024: Madison's engagement ring arrived at Tristan's house.

- July 20th, 2024: Tristan asked Madison to marry him and SHE SAID YES! <3

T&M