Brian and I met in 2005 at a family resort in the Poconos! Every year the same families would come back to the resort and spend a week together. In the summer of 2010, everything changed. Brian and I were hanging out a lot more, but I was naive and thought he was just being nice so I didn’t think anything of it. Then on the last night of the vacation, Brian walked me back to my room and kissed me - my very first kiss!! I was so excited! I couldn't wait to tell my sister & friend who came with us. Brian lived in Vermont and since the vacation was ending, we wouldn’t see each other again for a whole year! Once we got home, we talked every night on Skype - we would even fall asleep talking to each other. Every couple months, Brian would drive down to see me. When I was 18, all I wanted for Christmas was to visit Brian & I asked my parents for plane tickets to go to Vermont. Christmas in Vermont is beautiful and very cold. Whenever people ask how we met, they assume we were high school sweethearts since we were so young. Even though we never went to the same school & lived 400 miles apart, in a way we kind of were. When I graduated high school in 2014, Brian moved down to NJ to be with me! He moved down with no car, no job, and no money, but a lot of love for me! He lived in my parents basement for about a year. Eventually he started working, found his own place to live, and went back to school to finish his degree. In December 2017, my grandma passed away. She had a great love for Brian & I’m sure she would be so happy to know that we are starting our future in her home. In 2018 after I graduated nursing school, Brian asked me to marry him and it was the easiest question I’ve ever had to answer. Everything in my life makes sense because of Brian. He is kind and thoughtful and he keeps me grounded. I am so lucky to love him & be loved by him. It’s so crazy to think that at 14 years old I knew the person I wanted to spend my whole life with, but I did… and I still do.

Jenna and I have known each other for over ten years and have been best friends since the beginning. As she said, we met on vacation in the Poconos, at a resort called Daniels. She was an outgoing, social Jersey girl and I had just moved from Long Island, New York to Vermont, a place the matched my quiet, slow-paced personality. While my family continued to take our annual trip to the Poconos Jenna and I began to grow closer. Our families began to become intertwined as my siblings, especially my sister, Tricia, brought Jenna and her sister Kristina into her circle of friends at Daniels. I didn’t realize it at the time but I’m so thankful for my sister being so welcoming. Jenna and I would continue our friendship and kindling relationship over the internet with 400 miles between us when we weren’t on vacation together. 
By the time I was twenty-one and finishing my final semester of my Associate’s degree I decided to move to New Jersey to be with Jenna. Pretty much everybody thought I was insane except for her. Jenna’s parents were so welcoming and supportive in my transition, as difficult as it was for a year or two. I still owe so much to Jenna and her mother, Diane, for helping convince me to go back to school for my Bachelor’s degree. For the last six years I have been building a life for myself in New Jersey with the love of my life at my side, constantly pushing me to be a better person. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without her and her family’s support. There’s nothing in the world that makes me more excited than being able to say that I will spend the rest of my life with this beautiful, caring, thoughtful, person.