I met Christos for the first time in 2018 while visiting Blaine in San Diego. I remember thinking he was hilarious, easy to be around, and very handsome. From the start, he felt like part of my family, though at the time I didn’t think anything of it.


Three years later, Christos joined my friends and me at a Zach Bryan concert. From the very beginning, it was always so effortless for us to have a blast together. Not long after that, he was deployed, and we started talking almost every day. Over those six months, he became my best friend. He was steady, thoughtful, wise, and the kind of person who made everything feel lighter and easier. All my friends knew how big of a crush I had on him and counted down the days with me until he got home.


The day he got back, I drove to Virginia Beach, and we went on our first official date, a Houndmouth concert. I knew that night that I would never go on another first date again (which I am sure all of my friends will attest to). We took our time and dated for a few months before making it official right before my senior year of college. 


Christos knows that one of my favorite verses comes from Timothy, where Paul speaks of taking hold of the “life that is truly life.” In so many ways, Christos has come to represent that for me. He has supported me in law school, cheered me on as I worked in Africa, and constantly encouraged me to embrace every opportunity, no matter how uncertain and scary. He has shown me what it means to be truly known and deeply loved. An added bonus is that he was already pre-approved by Blaine and Clayton. I am so grateful I get to spend the rest of my life with such an incredible man! 

Emily added a spark to my life in 2021, in Charlotte, North Carolina. She took me to watch a running back play piano, with an out-of-work airplane mechanic on guitar, in a redneck music hall, and I hated it. Still, she looked stunning in her green sun dress and boots, and she’s looked better every day since. We were quiet as she finished college, but soon her life became central to mine. She waited for me while I took to the road, and she braved the long months of deployments. As my life moved along, so did hers. She grew brilliant and vibrant, educated and intense. She matched my curiosity, and I saw that she was dying to see the parts of the world that she had always been protected from.

I knew quickly that she was my better in every way. Where I was weak she was strong, when I was insensible she was wise beyond her years, and when I was agitated she kept me still. As I moved she moved. I watched her work for governors, I heard of her spiritual triumphs on the African continent, from a far I admired the furiousness with which she debated her peers at trial. With a flash of fate Emily entered my life, and with grace and elegance she has guided it ever since. She is the axis on which I balance. My story is simply hers.