Victoria was someone I was instantly drawn to. Mere photos of the beautiful girl sent me on a mission to get to know her. Originally, I sent her an message and was surprised that I actually received one back. Right away we started to banter and chat about our lives and passions, specifically music. She’s a talented vocalist and I'm a musician, so we couldn’t help but connect over jazz and other related things. However, this sparked a curiosity in me. How could I get this beautiful and talented girl to give me a chance? I would have to be patient.

While our brief social media conversations were fun, I wanted more. Eventually our talks fizzled out, and I began to just periodically comment on how cute she was whenever she posted a photo. She was always sweet with a reply, but it never turned into anything. This continued on for several months, almost a full year. I had no idea if she was interested in me, but I wanted to plant the seeds just in case.

Eventually, after a few flirtatious interactions, I finally asked her on a date, and to my surprise she actually said yes! Until... She canceled at the last minute. I was super bummed out, but was understanding of whatever the reason was. Still, I thought about her a lot. Fast forward a couple months of continuous unrelenting compliments, and a second chance arose. Apparently one of her close friends was one of my colleagues from university. This friend vouched for my character while Tor and her girl friends were hanging out. So, to my surprise, I was invited to girls night. I tentatively showed up, not knowing what to expect, but not wanting to miss out on finally meeting this beautiful girl. When we did, we instantly connected. We talked for hours about life, what we liked, what we didn’t, and everything in between. Eventually I drove her home, and she kissed me goodbye when I left. I was utterly shocked, and from that moment I knew I had stepped into something special. I could not stop thinking about her.

After that, she invited me to a Christmas party. I was pumped to spend the night with her. And while we did play a ton of beer pong together (we were the reigning redemption champions) I still questioned whether or not she was fully interested in me. I felt self conscious for some reason and when I told her I was leaving, she offered to walk me out. It was there she told me she wanted to spend more time with me, and she kissed me goodbye once again.

I was ecstatic.

If you’ve ever had giddy lovey dovey feelings for someone, imagine that times ten. I could not stop thinking about her. We planned to go out ice skating for our first real date, and when we did it was incredible. It felt like we could read each other's minds, and we talked for hours about everything and anything. From that point on we continued our dates and we began to fall for each other seriously. After about two months I finally asked her to be my girlfriend. She said yes! From that point on, we have been continually meshing deeper and stronger, overcoming adversity together, and finding laughter in all that we do. We fit together perfectly, and it truly feels like I found someone who makes me a better person, and draws me deeper into my faith.

I prayed for years and years that I would meet my special person, and God not only gave me that, but so much more. She truly is meant for me.

Ridge is a very patient and persistent man. I met him at a point in my life where I planned the opposite of settling down. I had my friends, we had the world at our fingertips, and being flirty and free made me who I was. I never thought a swipe and a single conversation about jazz band would lead to… nothing. We had one conversation and that was really it on my end. I would post stories of my outfits, going out, having fun, and he would give me sweet compliments here and there. I didn’t think twice about actually meeting up or hanging out until one day, as I’m sure he got tired of this routine, he asked me out on a date. I was hesitant because I had never actually met him before, but I agreed anyways because it seemed like the right thing to do after all the time that had passed. As the day approached, I got nervous which was weird for me because I had never really been that nervous for a date. So I did what any logical person would do… I cancelled. From then on, we went back to the same routine of not really speaking except for the odd compliment.

One night, my friends and I had a girls night and his name popped up. I mentioned it to them and one of the girls just so happened to had gone to school with him. She vouched so hard for this man, how kind and sweet and helpful he was, and pushed me to see him. That’s all the validation I needed to invite him to her house after midnight on a random weekday. Everyone was so excited and one of the girls literally hopped online to get ordained because she straight up told me I was going to marry him. Little did I know, right? When he showed up, he was so cute and exactly what my friend had described. Fun, sweet, charming, he fit right in. So much so that they invited him to a Christmas party they were hosting the upcoming weekend. At the end of the night, I decided I had nothing to lose and kissed the guy because he was super cool and why not?

Fast forward, the weekend came, the party came, Ridge came, and a whole lot of people came. I said hello and after that, barely saw him the whole night. Aside from a stretch of being the dream team with our crazy pong skills and becoming 7x redemption champs of course. I was having a fun night celebrating Christmas with my friends and meeting new people, until the time came when he found me and told me he was leaving. I walked him to the door and felt weirdly sad to see him go, but I shook it off because we had only just met and hardly spoken!

I woke up the next day feeling bad about the party and I couldn’t stop thinking about him, so we eventually planned to do something fun together. We finally had our first official date driving around, looking at Christmas lights, showing each other our favourite music, and talking for 6 whole hours. It was perfect and I realized how amazing this guy was. That night marked the beginning of the craziest, almost 3 year adventure I could have ever imagined. I wouldn’t have had it any other way and can officially say that through my experience, patience and persistence really does pay off.