Kristen and I met while marching in the Blue Stars Drum & Bugle Corps in 2015 through some mutual friends. We immediately hit it off as great friends throughout the summer. Taking pictures with weird mannequins at gas stations at 2 in the morning, eating some meals together from the cook truck, me teaching her how to play a cheese-cha-chut on a newspaper vending machine etc. After the summer of 2015, we stayed in touch. From time to time, we would get to hang out at different social events that both of us would be at. I always looked forward to seeing Kristen when I got the chance because I knew she would be bubbly and full of energy, and I always had a great time hanging out with her. A few years passed and the summer of 2017 came around. I distinctly remember being very excited to see Kristen toward the end of tour when she told me which shows she would be at. We got reconnected throughout the summer and I ended up getting a job teaching at the school she was a band director. I was very excited to get to spend more time around Kristen and her bubbly personality. Between the kids at the school teasing us about if we were going to homecoming together, or them constantly asking Kristen if we were dating, it made me really start to evaluate what that might actually look like. We went to a Dayton Dragons baseball game together and we got a drink at a bar across the street after the game. We ended up sitting there talking for over two hours after the game, and to this day it is one of my favorite memories with her. This single night made me realize that I was in fact in love with Kristen and this was no longer just an amazing friendship (to me at least, don't worry she was oblivious to any advances I tried to subtly make). So naturally, I picked up a six pack of beer, locked myself in my room, and gave Kristen a call a few days later to express how I felt about her. The rest is history!