Kel’s Version:

It was May of 2020. As a teacher, I usually travel during the summer holidays, but since I couldn’t travel the world due to the coronavirus, I thought I might as well get a summer job. I thought "where could I get a job that I enjoyed but also could meet a man, and have a summer love?" I decided on the deli department of a high-end grocery store. Unsurprisingly, after 4 weeks of working shifts in the deli and wearing my glasses, face mask, and baseball hat, a total of ZERO men hit on me or asked me out. I decided it was time to return to old faithful, aka online dating, and specifically went on Bumble, where the woman has to reach out first to any matches. After a few months of virtual first dates on ZOOM and a handful of underwhelming masked first dates, I swiped right on a cutie playing the ukulele — and over 3 years later we’re planning our wedding!

Cal’s Version:

After making it through Navy Boot Camp, I was stationed in Mayport on the USS Iwo Jima. When I arrived in Florida, I wasn’t exactly looking for another long-term relationship. The Navy is a fantastic substitute for a relationship though, it’s a lot less fun, of course. I did what any good sailor would do and loaded up on tattoos, pizza, and beer. If being a good Navy sailor was just doing those things, I wasn’t doing too bad.

After COVID hit and getting tattoos, pizza, and beer was a little more difficult, I started to rethink my idea of staying single. It was probably the worst time to start looking for a relationship as everyone’s face was covered in a mask. No one looked particularly cute wearing a mask, myself included. A friend of mine tried to convince me that I should get on dating apps, like Bumble, stating that my sexy Australian accent would pull a lot of ladies. He underestimated my ability to scare the ladies away.

I eventually gave Bumble a shot and found Kelly who was 31 and a Christian. We messaged back and forth for a few days before deciding to have a phone call. We talked for 2 to 3 hours for a couple of nights before meeting in person on a Sunday before I went out to sea for six weeks with the Navy. I was so out of practice with dating that even when Kelly was so obviously flirting, I just took a sip of my coffee and talked about my tattoos. When we left the café, I didn’t even walk her to her car, and I tried to shake her hand instead of hugging her. Nailed it!

Kelly thought I was cute or funny, because now, three years later, we are engaged! For the first six months that we dated, I was out to sea every other month. After those six months, I was on a nine-month deployment. For those who think dating a military man is easy, it is not. If we suck, deployment is a nice break from us. If we are great, deployment is a long test of a relationship.

There is no doubt that both Kelly and I are weird people. I don’t think this relationship would work if we weren’t both so weird. But we make each other laugh, we make each other happy, and we are both just as happy as the other going to a brewery.