IT'S FINALLY HAPPENING!!!!!!!!!

We met back in late 2012 at some house parties. I would go to some parties with my boy, Chalmer Wyatt and a bunch of his old high school friends. Chalmer always tried setting us up together but Elizabeth never took the bait no matter how hard I tried. One party in early 2013, Elizabeth couldn’t find her phone. I heard her say, “can someone call my phone for me?” I jumped at the opportunity and got her to put her number in my phone to “help” her find hers. After she found it, I saved her number in my phone and even sent her a text with my name so that she could have my number. I figured I’d put the ball in her court and see if she wanted to play... She didn’t. During the summer of 2013, when I was back home for the break, I finally got the text I’ve been waiting months for. She said “OMG I just realized I never texted you!” Or something similar to that. I wanted to say, “took you long enough,” but I decided not to and that’s when it all began.

We would text on and off for years but only saw each other twice between the initial text and 2018. Elizabeth moved between Florida, Arizona and Oklahoma while I spent time in Oklahoma and back home in Toronto. Our timelines never seemed to match up. I was in Oklahoma when Elizabeth was somewhere else and when she moved back to Oklahoma for a little while, I moved back home for about 5 months. By the time I came back, she was already set to move back to Florida. Finally, in May 2018, our timelines lined up. I was back in Oklahoma and Elizabeth’s sister, Katie was graduating from college. Elizabeth came to Oklahoma for Katie’s graduation weekend and I was going out with a group of mutual friends for Cinco de Mayo. I ended up texting Elizabeth the day of saying she should come up to the city to hang out with all of us. She did and we had a great time.

We began texting everyday from May 6th, on. The following weekend, I went to Wichita for my cousin, Billy’s house warming party with my brother, Marc, sister-in-law, Jenna and niece, Emma. After everyone went to bed I asked Elizabeth if I could call her. We ended up being on the phone for probably 3-4 hours. That became our nightly routine. Every night for 2 and a half months, we talked on the phone for hours. Sometimes even fell asleep without hanging up. Luckily for me, she was already planning on moving back to Oklahoma to be close to her brother for his senior year of high school. During one of our phone calls I told her that I’d love to fly out to Florida and drive back to Oklahoma with her so she didn’t have to make the trip by herself. July 17th was the day of my flight. It felt like such a long 2 and a half months but it was finally here. When I landed in Fort Lauderdale, Elizabeth was waiting for me at the airport. We had a very awkward side hug and awkward drive back to her house. Didn’t say a whole lot and both just looked straight ahead the whole drive. It was the beginning of our lives together. The awkwardness didn’t last long at all. I met her mom, Heidi, sister-in-law, Niki and little cousin, Alex and had a good but short time in Florida. On our way to Oklahoma, I had some friends staying in Alabama for the weekend. We decided to stop in and hang out with them for a couple days. Elizabeth fit right in with my friends from the jump. That was more reason to believe that she was the one (although I didn’t need any more reasons to realize that).

When we finally got back, I helped her move into a house that she stayed in for one night. She moved in with me shortly after because we never wanted to stay in different places. It's been a year and a half since we started hanging out everyday. There’s been ups and downs but the ups are far greater than the downs. Through all the years of knowing Elizabeth, there’s always been something there, it just wasn’t explored for a long time. Marc once told me, “when you know, you know.” I’ve definitely known that Elizabeth was the one for a long time so I’m so glad that the stars finally aligned for us.