I first met Ben the summer before our senior year of college at the University of Georgia (the best college in the world in my opinion, GO DAWGS!). Ben and I had both decided that we were going to become interns at our campus ministry, the UGA Wesley Foundation. Although we had been a part of Wesley for all four years, we hadn’t met until one summer service in 2022. Ben had recognized me from my groupme photo (a groupchat had been created for the incoming first year interns to get to know one another and see who they would be working with in the year to come) and came up to ask how I was getting along with some of the books that had been assigned by Wesley for us to read.
I had absolutely no idea who he was until he told me he recognized me from the groupme and mentioned that he was going to be a first year intern too. In the middle of this conversation, a friend of mine came up to say hi and after exchanging a quick catch-up, I turned to resume the conversation with Ben, only to find that he had walked away! (Ben disputes this version!!!) I looked around to find him, but the room was full of people moving about and trying to find seats, so eventually I gave up searching and sat down as the service began to start.
I felt so horrible that I debated sending him a message apologizing, but I wasn’t sure if he’d remember talking to me or thinking I was weird for reaching out to say sorry. Needless to say, I did not send him a message and I wouldn’t see him again until it was the first day of intern training.
The first few days of intern training came and went, and Ben, who I would notice walking around or hanging out around the intern office, disappeared yet again! This time though, he had something of mine. Ben had missed one of the teachings from a few days prior and asked me if he could look at my notes to fill in his training manual. I let him, of course, but he took a while to copy them over so I ended up letting him take my book home. But he had gotten sick and was out for over a week; he took this opportunity to text me and apologize for having my manual for so long. I told him it was totally fine and that I hoped he felt better soon. Eventually, he returned my manual back to me and it was already an inside joke of sorts between the two of us, him always taking my stuff and not giving it back for a while.
A few days following this, Ben asked me to help him write and address some of his support raising letters. He seemed like he needed the help, so I obliged. It was also just another excuse to get to talk and hangout with one another, so who was I to complain? Talking with him felt like talking to someone you’d known your whole life and I left work that day with the biggest smile on my face.
On the afternoon of August 30th, 2022, Athens was covered in rain. I was leaving my last class of the day with no umbrella, raincoat, or anything. I had accepted that I was going to be soaking wet for our weekly Encounter teaching (Encounter was my ministry area at Wesley and taught me so much about hearing God’s voice and loving others). Getting inside the Wesley building to start setting up for the students to arrive alongside the other Encounter interns, I noticed that Ben was still there, despite the workday being over and him being in a different ministry area. He explained to me that he was waiting for the rain to die down before walking to his car, but he might also stay to sit in on Encounter and see what it was that we were doing.
After Encounter released at 9:00pm, I wanted to head to one of the parking decks to go swing dancing (I’ve swing-danced since my freshman year and loved learning and teaching new dance moves) but I didn’t have anyone to dance with. My sweet friend Alexis had noticed Ben and I talking, and in true Alexis fashion, suggested to me in front of Ben that I should take him with me! Ben agreed to go, on the condition that we stop to get food on the way over. So, after picking up our McDonald’s we headed over to where swing-dancing was happening and I began teaching Ben some basic moves. Throughout the night, I was trying to figure out if I liked Ben or just saw him as a friend. Even though the swing dancing ended at 11:00pm, we stayed at the parking deck talking and practicing his newly-learned dance moves until 3:00am. I started to realize that there was a spark there.
That Thursday, September 1, 2022, I was in desperate need of help. I had waited until the absolute last minute to write a paper that had to be turned in in two hours; on top of that, I had an Encounter staff meeting I had to go to that would leave me with no time to finish the paper before I had to head to class to turn it in. Ben saw me frantically typing away at my computer and asked what was wrong. I explained my situation, and he told me not to worry about it. He instructed me to write some bullet points and he would finish the paper for me based off that information. I couldn’t believe he’d be so thoughtful and kind to help me! Once my meeting was over, I told him thank you and began to head to class. He then offered to give me a ride since he knew it would be a long walk and I would end up getting there late otherwise. So as he dropped me off in front of my class, I told him to have a good weekend and I’d see him Monday at Wesley.
That’s when I thought I’d see him next at least. In reality, halfway through my class, Ben texted me and asked if I’d like to get sno-cones with him afterwards. He’d pick me up at the same spot he dropped me off, then take me to Pelicans (the local sno-cone place). I agreed, knowing that this was definitely going to be some sort of date. We got to Pelicans around 5:30pm and stayed until they closed at 9:00pm; Ben was just so easy to talk to and I felt like I was sharing so many personal aspects of my life with someone I just met, but I felt so safe, like I could share anything with him and he wouldn’t think I was silly, awkward, or boring. We had obviously missed dinner in our hangout at Pelicans, so he then offered to take me to Chick-fil-a (and if you know Ben, you know that he LOVES CFA) to get us some food. It felt like neither of us wanted that night to end. We drove around Athens listening to music for another hour until he drove me back to Wesley to get my car. It was in the parking lot that he told me that he wanted to give me clarity and said he’d like to take me on an official date, and of course I said yes. We especially didn’t want the night to be over after that, so we climbed onto the roof of the Wesley building talking and watching the stars until 6:00am that morning. It was like a movie scene come to life, and I couldn’t believe it was happening to me.
We had our first date and then, on September 10, 2022, we had our second date, after which Ben asked me to be his girlfriend. Those first two dates were hilarious looking back, as both hadn’t gone exactly the way I’d hoped. On the first, after great conversation walking around campus, I had a handful of my friends show-up to see if he seemed nice (I encourage having your friends approve of someone you might date, but take a lesson from me and wait until after the first date to surprise attack the person with your friends; it’s a little awkward otherwise). On the second, I swore that the restaurant I suggested was fancy and we needed to dress nicer, but in actuality, it was essentially a pizza place, and Ben would not stop poking fun at my mistake, which was totally fair since I had him wear a button-up hahaha.
It was easy to fall in love with Ben. So much so, that I knew that he was going to be my person as soon as we spent the night on the Wesley roof. We said “I love you” in October of that year and had conversations about getting engaged as early as December. I’d describe myself as a poetic person, but I feel that being straightforward in this carries more power: Ben is my best friend. We’ve been inseparable since 9/10/22 and there is no activity, event, moment, etc. that wouldn’t be made better if he was there with me; he makes every single possible, conceivable, whatever word you want to use, thing about life better. The way that he loves me and the way that I love him has given me a deeper, more profound understanding of just how much God loves us. It is truly a selfless, compassionate, merciful love that couldn’t be deserved or earned. And it is such a blessing.
My last little stop on my side of our story takes place on August, 8, 2023; the day that Ben asked me to marry him. He was sly about everything and I had absolutely no idea what the day would hold. He claimed that we had to dress nice to go visit the Biltmore and upon arriving, seeing all the other tourists in leggings and t-shirts, claimed that he saw the pictures on their website and it seemed like people dressed nice. I explained that those were likely promotional photos to advertise the tour, so they naturally would have people dressed nice and chalked the outfit bluder up to him being a man. After the tour ended, and I had made plenty of jokes about the outfit mixup, Ben wanted me to go to see some statues at the top of the hill. The direction seemed illogical, as I knew he wanted to see the gardens and the statues were on the way to the parking lot, it didn’t make sense to go there first. And I protested about the decision a good bit up the hill. It wasn’t until he walked us out onto the field overlooking the estate that I started realizing something was up. And as he told me to set down my coffee, weird right? As he spoke to me, our amazing photographer Brighton jumped out of the bushes and captured the most perfect, magical moment of my life thus far.
God has perfectly crafted our love story and, looking back at all the big and small details and decisions only God could have orchestrated, everything fell perfectly into place. “I have found the one whom my soul loves” (Song of Solomon 3:4) and I couldn’t be more thrilled to see how our love story continues to unfold as husband and wife.