I met Josh in September of 2019. We both were auditioning for the Calvin Theatre Company’s fall production of “A Wrinkle in Time”. It was actually my friend Sara who noticed Josh first when I had told her to scope out any cute guys for me who were joining the theatre company. At this point, I knew Josh as the "cute talented boy with the unfortunate pimple on his nose." By the way things were going at the audition I could tell Josh was going to get the male lead (Calvin) , and I secretly hoped that the directors would cast me as the female lead (Meg) to play opposite him. A little onstage flirting couldn't hurt.

Well, it was safe to say there would be no onstage flirting for me because as I was cast as Charles Wallace, Meg’s little brother.

...Nice.

I remember thinking that surely Josh would not find me attractive after this.

Throughout the rehearsal process we became good friends, and since we were in the same dorm, Josh would walk back with me every night. A totally not creepy thing I did was start a list in my planner on September 16th titled “Things I know about Josh”. After every rehearsal, I could come back and scribble down the new insights I gained, some of which being:

-From Denver CO

-Last name is Youngsma

-Has a shirt that says “shirt” on it. Ha.

-Went to a Christian School (loves the Lord?)

-Lives on 2nd Beets (Convenient)

-Thought dorm retreat was boring

-Played Troy in his highschool's production of High School Musical.

-Is crap at basketball.

- Born on July 14, 2000 (he’s exactly one week older than me!)

-Is Professor Wilkin’s nephew. Woah.

-Has a crazy M/W/F schedule

-Can whistle like an owl through his tongue

-Very funny, perhaps a bit of an ego.

-Can talk forever. But I can listen.

I didn’t know it at the time, but this was just the beginning of the many things I would come to know and love about Josh.

As literally anybody in my life would have told you (college friends, roommates, floormates, friends back home, my barista probably) there was this girl. I met her at auditions for the show I was in and she was beautiful. The only problem was, I didn’t want to ask her out and risk her saying no. We’d spend hours together each week in rehearsal and if I’d made things awkward there was no avoiding her. “I’ll ask her out after the show closes,” I’d say to those who continued to urge me to just ask the girl out. Then, finally, the show closed and needed to come up with a new excuse, fast. So, I convinced her to join a student directed short play with me, “I’ll ask her out as soon as I’m done with this I promise.” The excuses continued. Can you tell I was nervous?

Then an intervention took place, sort of. My roommate, RA, and I got tickets to Dance Guild, a massive campus event in which this girl I was infatuated with was performing in. The three of us took out seats and watched the show. I must have been insufferable because every time this girl took the stage I’d point her out and my friends had to sit there and watch me with a dumb smile on my face as I watched her dance. So insufferable in fact that at the end of the night my RA, Jacob, turned to me and said something along the lines of, “Josh, I’m locking you out of your dorm until you ask this girl out.” That was the kick in the butt I needed, so thanks Jacob I needed that.

I made my way down to the stage as the dancers and their friends congratulated them. Swarmed by a sea of tall Dutch college students, finding this girl, who only stands 5’3” (and a half) was a challenge all its own. Luckily a small tap on my shoulder ended this nearly hopeless look. I spun around and there she was. Now, it should be no surprise to you that this girl was Maddie, it is our story afterall.

“Hey you came!”

“I did. You were amazing!”

“I’m glad you think so!”

Then from out of nowhere a third party joined our conversation, Sara, Maddie’s friend from high school. “Josh! I had a dream about you last night.” Sara would go on to explain how I heroically jumped in front of a bullet for her. My mind was racing, how do I delicately get Sara to leave without making Maddie walk away? Does this dream make me look good or bad in Maddie’s eyes? Can everybody else hear my heartbeat, because it’s REALLY loud. Whatever I said next it worked, Sara went to talk to somebody else and it was again just Maddie and I in a sea of strangers.

“I should go, my group is going to Applebees for dinner.”

“Hey wait, before you go,” then there was a moment of sheer nerves and panic, I acted out of pure instinct, “do you want to go out sometime?” As those words left my mouth my hands shot up halfway and did little jazz hands… jazz hands?!

Weird dance moves aside, Maddie said yes. We spent the next week talking back and forth planning. Maddie’s first ride in an Uber to her first Mediterranean food experience, Shawarma at Sheshko, then Frozen 2 and round the night off with a late night run to the Mejier across the street. This was apparently Maddie’s first time jaywalking too, and no matter what she tells you that car was NOT that close to her. Luckily, we had more dates after that.

On March 11 2020, Calvin University announced that the rest of the semester would be done virtually and we were getting evicted from our dorms. At this point I was not so much concerned about the global health crisis as I was about my boyfriend of 3 months now being 1,200 miles away.

To romanticize the less than idyllic situation, Josh and I sent letters in the mail to each other. Inside each envelope we wrote one regular letter saying how much we missed each other and plans for what we wanted to do when we reunited. In the other letter we dramatically wrote to each other like Josh was a soldier at war and I was his dutiful wife holding things down on the farm. It got pretty intense. We also worked on our goal of watching every single Disney animated movie together over Zoom calls. Although the days spent in quarantine seemed endless, we both agree that it has made our relationship even stronger.

Maddie and I had been nailing the long distance thing for a while, but as quarantine dragged on we knew we didn’t want to wait for the new school year to start to see each other again. So, we planned for her to come out to Denver to see where I grew up. Late June finally rolled around and Maddie flew into DIA. I was so excited to show her the city I grew up in but with only a week to do it I had my work cut out for me. In that week I took her to as many childhood locations as I could, we took the Light Rail to Downtown Denver one day to the art museum and walked the 16th St. mall. We explored all the shops in Downtown Littleton. We spent some time up at my family condo in Dillion, feeding chipmunks, walking up and down the lake and just relaxing surrounded by the rockies. This trip was also a chance for Maddie to meet my family. Now, when I say meet my family, I mean that a day after she landed and met my mom and dad officially for the first time, she met my grandma, aunts, uncles, and cousins all in one go.

I was so happy that we could come back to school for the fall semester, although things were quite different under Covid regulations. We got to do more theatre (outside and with masks) and went on more dates (outside and with masks). Josh took a break from school for the spring semester, and needless to say I was not too excited to spend six more months apart. However, we were experts at long distance at this point, and got through it with lots of FaceTime calls and letters. I even got to come back to Colorado in the summer!

Finally, I was back at Calvin full time. Maddie and I quickly jumped back into doing extracurriculars together. At this point in our relationship we’d spent nearly a year long distance and we wanted to make sure we made the most of the time we’d missed. Maddie had talked me into joining Dance Guild. Advanced Couples Funk (disco) to be more precise. Sure, I’d spent some of the best moments of my life on stage in front of people. But this felt totally out of my comfort zone, but something about doing this with Maddie made it more fun than nerve racking. By the time we were performance ready I was having too much fun to worry about how far out of my comfort zone I was, and seeing how happy Maddie was at rehearsals made it worth every second.

Later that year the two of us were in Calvin Theatre Company’s production of “These Shining Lives” and for what seemed like forever, the two of us were sharing the stage again. We had come full circle, from two kids flirting with each other from the wings, to a happy couple sharing the stage together.

This past year has gone by so quickly! Josh and I continue our traditions by getting Shawarma at Sheshco every anniversary, and celebrating “Dino night” by putting on our Dino onesies, eating Dino nuggets, and watching a dinosaur themed movie together. I was able to come out to Colorado for Christmas this year and partake in Josh's family traditions as well. Josh has been so supportive of me as I start my teaching career and has even made some guest appearances! Once to build a birdhouse for my preschoolers, and once dressed up as a pirate for my summer kids.

I knew Josh was the one when I asked him if he’d be willing to do the latter, and he says “Maddie. Do you think I’ve perfected my pirate voice for nothing? I know where I can borrow a sword.”

Maddie and I had previously talked about getting engaged in the summer of 2023. What was nice about that was that I got confirmation that the cute girl from theatre my freshman year who claims I almost got her hit by a car on our first date is willing to spend the rest of her life with me. The problem was she had a pretty good idea of when I was going to propose and I am under the belief that a proposal should be at least kind of a nice surprise. So, a plan began to formulate.

I texted a group of our friends and the day fell into place. One of us would reach out in a big group text inviting everybody to a condo my friend's grandparent owns (thank you Boers family) in Whitehall on the lake. We’d spend the day on the beach, boating around, or playing board games. Just a casual friendly end of summer bash. Then we’d go down to Muskegon for dinner and drinks and right at sunset we’d find ourselves walking on the beach and somebody would suggest we take cute couple pictures. Maddie and I would go last and I’d drop down to one knee and pop that all important question. Everything was going so smoothly, plans were made, everybody was free, and Maddie was none the wiser. Then the big day rolled around and the weather was not a beautiful, sunny August day. It was a cold, rainy, cloudy, August day. But, for whatever reason I was at no point worried the day was a loss. We drove out as a group and after an initial chilly walk down the pier and up the beach we spent some time in an indoor pool, we played bored games and the time to leave for dinner was ready. The sky was still cloudy and even as the friends around me assured me everything was going to work out, they had no need. I knew everything was going to be just fine. We sat down for dinner just as the clouds started to break up, and by the time we finished eating the clouds had broken up and the sun was dipping down below the horizon. Everybody took their turns taking pictures and Maddie and I stepped down the beach. Cameras were raised and I stepped back and dropped down to one knee, and the rest is (recent) history.