I met Melissa Elaine Brown during my freshman year in 2000 at the school I am currently attending, Stanton College Preparatory School. We were associates then because we weren't attracted to one another like we are now and I didn't think we had anything in common. Nothing else changed our relationship when we became sophomores. We still talked on a 'Hey' and 'Bye' level.

It wasn't until the beginning of our junior year when we talked more on a friendship level. We started school on August 7, 2001 which wasn't a pleasant awakening for most of us. It just so happened that Melissa and I had enrolled in the same Trigonometry and Analytical Geometry class for the first semester 4th period. Us having the same class together brought us closer as friends. We found out a lot about one another that we never knew of before. For instance, she's smart in Math just like me and she enjoys it just like I do. She was very easy to get along with, had a great sense of humor, interesting personality, and obtained a low profile. What I mean by 'low profile' is that she didn't reveal any of her personal business no matter how close you were to her. Of course, it took her a while to open and discuss with me who she was as a person but I was willing to wait. As I waited, I found out that she was a person full of jokes and laughter and I enjoy that the most about her. In addition, the conversation was always at a constant flow and I was always willing to wait for her after class even though she took forever to get all of her books and other materials into her backpack. Near the end of the semester, someone told me that she liked me but that she wasn't sure if an intimate relationship with me would last because we were too close as friends. She was worried that us being together would ruin our friendship. I didn't really pay any attention to what the tipster said but yet went on trying to seek other girls to talk to on a more intimate level.

When Winter Break finally was about to commence, I said my 'Goodbye' to her and gave her one last hug. During the first week of the break, I called her to see how she was doing but she wasn't home. I didn't really pay that much attention to her afterwards. It wasn't until my best friend, Treigh Jamaal Mackey told me that I needed a girl to talk to that she just so happened to be the girl I wanted to talk with. When she didn't answer the phone again, I kept calling until I reached her on Christmas Day and I wished her a Merry Christmas. We had a brief conversation about how busy she had been and that was the last of me and her talking during Winter Break. I called her once more and no one didn't answer the phone. Thats when it hit me! I had some kind of compassion for this girl and I had to tell her right away.

When school reopened on January 7, 2002, I finally got the courage to tell her that I wanted to take our friendship to another level. On the next day, she had to ask me if I were joking and I said that I don't joke about statements like those. She then was relived and we engaged in talking on more than a friendship level. She had a boyfriend at the time but he wasn't treating her like the queen she should have been treated like. I respected the fact that she had a boyfriend but I was still persistent in trying to engage in an intimate relationship.

On January 21, 2002, it was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and it was raining hard here in Jacksonville, Florida. She called me and we both talked about how the parade was postponed and exchanged our stories of what we did afterwards. I went to Hooters with two of my friends and then home while she went skating with some of her friends from church. Then, she explained to me of how she broke up with her boyfriend the day before. He wouldn't accept the fact that she was breaking up with him but he had to at some point in time.

At 5:23pm, after she was done explaining to me about the break-up, I asked her, 'Would you be my girl?' and she happily responded, 'Yes'. We have been a jubilant couple ever since then and we always keep God in the head of our relationship. On February 10, 2002, I told her for the first time that I loved her and on February 13, 2002, she told me that she loved me. She is the love of my life and I do not know what I would do without her. I think about her well-being day and night and bless God every chance I can of bringing her into my life. She is truly my angel and my wife to be. I love her so much.