As most of you probably know by now, Ben and I both were cheerleaders in college: Ben at UNC Chapel Hill, and me at Clemson University (Yes, by now Ben does get tired of me talking about all the National Championships I have been to, but at this point he's made the conscious decision to hear about it for the rest of his life). Ben and I first met my senior year of college at Clemson (yes, I am older than him). Some UNC cheerleaders and Clemson cheerleaders got together to stunt at a cheerleading gym in Charlotte. Ben and I were introduced, we threw a stunt, and then went on our way. I don’t think either of us thought about our meeting again. Fast forward a few months and I had gotten into Physical Therapy school at UNC - Chapel Hill and decided to attend UNC to pursue my dream of becoming a Physical Therapist. Now it is August 2020, I was adjusting to graduate school and getting to know my classmates. One Saturday in August, a group from my program decided to workout on Hooker fields, the intramural fields on campus. After the workout, we all were hanging out, when I happened to notice a few cheerleaders on the other side of the field. I realized I recognized one of them (this would be Ben), but I wasn't sure if I wanted to say anything because I didn't know if he remembered me. When my friends and I were leaving, I walked passed Ben and his friends, and I found out he recognized me as well. Ben and I talked for a few minutes, catching up on what each other was up to and as we said our goodbyes, we threw out the idea of getting together sometime to catch up. A few days later, Ben and I had made plans to get dinner together. I assumed this was just a dinner between two friends – until Ben offered to pick me up (which was completely out of his way). I began to get nervous, wondering if this was a date or not. Turns out, in Ben’s mind he saw it as a “pre-date”, the term he used when telling his housemates why he was going to dinner with this random girl on a Monday night. We ended up going to dinner at Al's Burger Shack, a popular place on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. Fairly quickly, I realized how natural our conversation was and how comfortable I felt around him. We talked about our times in college, our faith, our travels, and our love for food. I think we both left that night realizing we had a lot in common. A few days later, Ben asked me to stunt with him and a few of his teammates. While we were stunting, Ben realized he forgot about a Zoom meeting. If you know him well, you know he often forgets things, and I quickly learned this was not out of character for him. It turns out this meeting was with someone who has had a huge impact on Ben and his faith. I asked who this meeting was with and he casually said “Mike Echstenkamper”. I actually knew exactly who Mike was. My dad was in a small group led by Mike Echstenkamper when he went to UNC. Over the past 30 years, my dad supported and kept up with Mike and his ministry “Athletes in Action” as it had a huge impact on his walk with the Lord as he was at UNC. I had heard about Mike and his ministry for over 10 years, and now this guy I just met apparently also knows Mike and is being discipled by him. This felt like more than just a coincidence, and I decided I was interested in getting to know this guy a little more.

A few days later, Ben asked me on our first official date. He had come up with a couple of ideas for our first date, but due to a horrible storm that night, we just went to dinner. Ben and I both agree a dinner date is not our ideal 1st date, but I guess it was okay enough for him to ask me on another date soon after. We went on dates for about 6 weeks, where we discovered our mutual love for cooking, he showed me around Chapel Hill, and we met each other's friends. We made it official on October 12, 2020. Over the next few months we began to make many memories together. I took him to Clemson, we met each other’s families, we took a day trip to Asheville, we spent many nights studying together (or at least I studied and Ben more often than not was there for support), we went to the beach with friends, he helped me learn how to snowboard, and spent many date nights cooking dinner together. Our feelings began to grow pretty quickly. By January, I knew I loved him, but wanted to wait a while to tell him, as those words held a lot of weight for me. I also wanted him to say them first. By March, I could not hold it in any longer, and told him I loved him. Thankfully, he felt the same way, and I later found out he had known in January as well. Over the next few months, we began to talk about what the future would look like. Ben was thinking about moving to Washington, D.C. for his first job, which meant we were going to have to do long distance. As Ben’s graduation grew nearer, our relationship continued to grow, and I was dreading him moving away and starting long distance. However, I was also so excited about Ben’s job opportunity and encouraged him to go, knowing that long distance was worth it with him.

On June 5, 2021 Ben moved up to D.C. This was a huge change in our relationship: we only saw each other every few weeks, Ben was now working a Monday-Friday job and had less free time compared to college, and most of our “time together” was over FaceTime. Long distance was not the easiest. I missed Ben a lot. Most of his time was spent with other people, and for me the same. We were continually learning how to love and serve each other well while we were in two different cities. The one thing that kept us going was the hope that one day long distance would end, we would get married, and live in the same city again. Although this season was difficult, we still had so much fun on the weekends we got to spend together, in Chapel Hill and D.C. As our relationship continued to grow, we began to talk more about the possibility of marriage. Over many months, Ben and I had many conversations, spent lots of time in prayer, and talked to many friends and mentors about our future. We knew we wanted to get married, and thankfully had support from close friends and family.

The weekend of March 19th I was planning to visit Ben in D.C. He told me he had made some plans for Saturday, but he would not tell me what. Saturday came, and Ben took me to three different restaurants in D.C. – we began at a Spanish restaurant, proceeded to a French restaurant, and then lastly ended up at a Mediterranean restaurant. It was such a sweet day, as we got lots of time to catch up, walk around D.C., and enjoy some amazing food. UNC basketball also beat Baylor in the NCAA tournament at our 2nd restaurant, which was another highlight of the day. Ben told me he wanted us to go see the cherry blossoms, and of course I agreed. With the help of friends, Ben had set up a spot around the cherry blossoms where he decided to pop the question, and of course I said yes! Ben and I were so excited to be engaged, but even more excited about our life we would start together. As we look forward to December 30th, we have looked back to reflect how good and faithful God has been in our dating relationship, and we are excited about where the Lord will take us in our marriage.