Our Story.

This is the story of Darcy and Matt.

Darcy and Matt’s first encounter was in the 4th grade of 2009 during “A Battle of the Books Meet.” Darcy was representing her school, St. John Lutheran in Wheaton and Matt was representing his school, Pleasant Hill Elementary in Winfield. Matt’s team ultimately prevailed in this fierce competition. Though Darcy and her teammates fought valiantly, they were, to put it mildly, extremely disappointed with the final outcome. However, Matt’s team was accused of questionable and nefarious tactics, but that tale is for another time. Little did Darcy and Matt know at the time of this combative and warlike event that their adversarial relationship would blossom into a love story that rivals the finest Hollywood script or romance novel. A year later in 2010, Darcy coincidentally began 5th grade at the same school Matt was attending Pleasant Hill Elementary School in Winfield, Illinois. Darcy and Matt did not interact very much with each other during that school year, probably because Darcy was still feeling bitter about the contentious loss to Matt’s team in “The Battle of The Books” the previous year. However, there was one instance at school on Halloween when Darcy wore her mustard bottle costume. Part of the costume was a pointed hat and Matt along with his friends kept taking her hat and running away with it during recess. Darcy was not thrilled with this annoying antic and having to chase them down to get the hat back. Darcy, being arguably the fastest runner in the school, had no problem tracking down Matt and his merry band of thieves. Little did Darcy know that this was the beginning of Matt’s pursuit of her, the girl of his dreams. As this school year progressed, 5th graders often exchanged each other's phone numbers. Darcy’s friend asked her if she wanted Matt Swanson’s phone number. Darcy thought about it, and feeling irritated by Matt and his henchmen’s embryonic antics, said “No.” Matt would not be deterred so easily.

The following year during the fall of 2011, Darcy and Matt started the 6th grade at Monroe Middle School in Wheaton, Illinois. They were both in Ms. DeVries 2nd period Science class and much to Darcy’s chagrin; they were assigned to sit next to each other for the first few weeks of school. However, Matt had a schedule change and therefore they were no longer in the same science class. Word on the street, Darcy had some pull in the school's main office, however this is unverified. One day, Darcy got a text from an unknown number saying “Hey this is Matt”. Now, there were 4 Matts in their 6th grade class. Darcy asked which Matt this was and in her mind she went through all of them only to find out that this was her Battle of the Books adversary and playground tormentor, “Matt Swanson”! Matt, in his James Bond cool demeanor, sincerely explained to Darcy that a classmate gave him Darcy’s phone number. Darcy began to warm up to Matt and they started to become friends.

Matt and Darcy blissfully began to text every day. Darcy mentioned to Matt that he should start dating one of her friends. Matt declined because he was smitten the first day he ever saw Darcy and wanted to date her! As time went on Darcy began to realize that she actually liked Matt. Then, on October 9, 2011, Darcy texted the most terrifying text a 6th grader could ever send, “Who do you like?” Matt was taken by complete surprise. He was feeling nervous and sweating profusely about his answer, he blurted out “Everyone. Who do you like?” Darcy realized she was painted in a corner. Her mind was working like a steel trap to counter Matt’s ambiguous answer. She decided with confidence to just be honest, all the while knowing her father strictly forbade any boyfriends until after high school, stating “I like you Matt.” From then on, they have been together ever since.