Our love story begins with a match on Bumble.

It was the fall of 2023, and we were both in Tallahassee. Alex was finishing up at FSU, and Hannah was in her sophomore year at Tallahassee Community College.

There was an instant connection, along with a mutual agreement that we just wanted to be friends.

That didn’t last long.

Something kept drawing us together, and by New Year’s Eve, we made it official.

After graduating from FSU in December, Alex moved home to the Tampa area. Hannah, who had no interest in a long-distance relationship, finished her AA and transferred to USF a few months later.

Problem solved.

Then Alex went on deployment.

So much for avoiding long distance.

Before Alex left, he made sure Hannah had solid connections with some of his closest friends. She was in good hands (thanks, Isa!). While he was away, we stayed connected however we could, scheduling phone calls as often as possible and having long-distance movie nights, watching the same movie while FaceTiming from separate cities.

We already knew we had something special, but the challenges of dating long-distance forged us even stronger.

Now we know for sure:

We’re In It for the Long Hall.