Hillary and I first met in the fall of 2012 at TCU’s The BLUU (the cafeteria). My best man, Daniel Naumann, introduced us as he was best friends with everyone. The real story starts in the spring of my freshman year (2013). Hillary invited me to a sorority mixer, which was a surprise since we were just acquaintances then. Hillary says she had "multiple invites" to give to this mixer, but I think it was a personal gesture. After this event, I invited her to my fraternity’s out-of-town formal, Roseball. Roseball was the greatest thing in my life at this point. All my best friends were there and I had a great date. Unbeknown to me at the time, but found out nine years later, Hillary had a terrible time due to my obsession with my new college friends. However, after we were dating, I discovered Hillary had a crush on me before Roseball, which quickly vanished after formal. For the next two years, Hillary and I were just friends. Entering our senior year, our friendship continued to grow, and I always thought she was the coolest girl in the room. I started to send out soft feelers Hillary’s way. I invited her and some friends to my parent’s house for dinner. The dinner was a group outing that was secretly my plan to spend time with Hillary but packaged as a friendly, kind gesture. The dinner was also when my parents, specifically my father, thought I should pursue Hillary. Within days I was going to ask Hillary out on a date. In the days leading up to my asking, Hillary told me she would go on the World Race, an 11-month mission trip in 11 different countries, after graduating. This intel showed me that Hillary would travel overseas and never return to Texas. Senior year (2015) wasn’t our time yet, and I don’t think we would be engaged today if I did ask her on a date then. My father always asked about Hillary, hinting that I should reconnect or that I had blown my chances back in school. After graduating (2016), I moved to Dallas, and Hillary went overseas. After one year, Hillary moved to Nashville. In June 2020, my father asked about Hillary again. It had been over a year since Hillary, and I last talked. I decided to give her a cold call. My call went to voicemail, and I got no text or call back. Fast forward eight months, Daniel brought Hillary up in conversation. I knew these were no coincidences. I knew I needed to follow up and cold call Hillary again! I call again, and Hillary doesn’t answer but at least acknowledges the call, this time via text. The next day we chatted for an hour or so. I did call to catch up, but there was always that “what-if” about Hillary that I gave a 2% chance of working out since we were many states away. Long story short, I defined my intentions and asked if I can keep calling her. Later, I explained my crush and asked her if I could fly to Nashville and take her on a date. After the first date, we began dating long-distance for eight months before I moved to Nashville to close the deal. It only took me another eight months to finally put a ring on her finger after knowing a month in she was the one.