Our story began in the Spring of 2023. Madi asked me to be her date to a party for her Sorority. It was the very end of the school year, and we were both going to spend the summer in different states working at camp. This made it easy to ask her on a first date, because I knew that if it went poorly, we would have an easy excuse to call things off. Unfortunately, after a week (and two more dates) passed, I realized my easy exit plan had backfired in a major way. Now, we would get to spend three months in a different time zone, catching up on weekends. Looking back, that summer I worked with half of my thoughts and heart in Toccoa, Georgia. We came back to Aggieland in the fall, and I asked her to be my girlfriend, and all of a sudden we were off to the races. The first year of dating was a lot of learning. I learned that she is fearless, cold (all the time),constantly and genuinely thankful, and loves to solve problems. She learned that I like to ramble when I tell stories, that I do not easily get embarrassed on a dance floor, and that (somehow) I’m also an introvert. The most important thing we both learned, however, is that we love one another, a lot.

I’m not sure that we had a moment where it clicked. There was no magic spotlight on her descending from heaven, and a deep voice spoke saying “This is the one.” Yet suddenly, it became easy to discuss a future together. Suddenly, I realized that I was far more afraid of life without her than I was of committing my life to her, forever and ever. In fact, that sounded like a lifetime of prayer answered, a dream come true. So over Christmas break of our senior year, I bought a ring, and I made a plan. I bought her tickets to one of her favorite bands at a concert in Fort Worth on Valentine’s Day and gave her them as a Christmas gift. The morning after, I took her to a lake, and surprised her with the real reason for our trip to Fort Worth.

As we approach the wedding date this December, we can’t help feeling like we are approaching another starting line, or that we are finishing the prologue, and the real story is about to begin in earnest. If you are reading this, know that you are special to us, and have played a part in getting us to that story and that starting line, and we are deeply grateful for you. See you soon!