What started in friendship has now blossomed into a lifelong commitment to one another. When I first met Lauren I was surprised to see that she was almost my height. It was nice to not have to look down to talk. I had first noticed her when I was going to the gym in college. Lauren was the moderator for the weight room and I was an avid attendant of the gym at our college. I went to go grab some water from the drinking fountain and we locked eyes as I was walking back towards the weight machines. She started off the conversation with a solid question about a test we had in a class that we were both apparently in, unknown to my knowledge. From there we just got to talking and before I knew it we had talked for about 30 minutes. She had completely ruined my workout but little did I know that that would be the first of many interactions together. Once I realized we had a class together, we began studying together with some mutual friends and we slowly began seeing each other more and more. Eventually a couple months later we had spring break. Lauren lived in Springfield, MO and I lived in St. Louis. She told me that she would be visiting family in St. Louis over break and that we should hangout. We ended up going to the St. Louis Zoo and eventually ended the date having our first kiss in her car in front of my house. See Lauren had driven us to the zoo because she had refused to let me drive, even though I had grown up there my entire life and knew every street. But it's okay because we only missed our exit for the zoo once. We began talking more seriously after our first date and once school started again I finally asked her to dinner. A couple weeks later was her birthday. It was at that point when we sealed the deal and became officially a couple. We've been dating ever since for the past 4 yrs now, through long distance, covid, and everything in between. But we stuck it out for that long, and now we've decided to stick it out forever.

It was my junior year of college and I was sitting in biomechanics class. All these soccer players walked in and sat down in front of me in the second row. I turned to the girl sitting next to me and whispered how cute they were and she rolled her eyes and laughed. Now I just had to figure out how to talk to them. A couple months went by, and I saw the cute redhead from class in the gym where I was working. (I promise I wasn't staring, I was just making sure he was being safe.) He went to grab some water and that's when I caught his attention and asked him an enticing question: "What'd you get for question 12 on our last biomechanics test??" After talking for a little bit, I realized he didn't even know we were in the same class! With the knowledge that he was apparently oblivious, I was immediately less intimidated and we had an easy-going conversation. As the semester went on, we would see each other in the library, eventually started studying together with friends, and then started studying just the two of us. Eventually, Christmas break came and went and once spring semester started, I sadly realized we didn't have any classes together. I began looking for excuses to see him and was ecstatic when I realized he was looking for excuses to see me too. Despite having a massive crush on him, I asked him to "hangout" over spring break thinking it would be a "as friends." Turns out he thought it was a date, and that made for an awkward conversation on the drive home where I geeked out. Surprisingly, the "hangout date" still ended in a kiss! Once we got back to school, he asked me out on a "real date" to get Hibachi and I happily agreed. Eventually, during my 21st birthday weekend, we went out with my friends and both shared that we really liked each other. I grabbed his hand to walk home from the bars, and haven't let go since.