WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — Some high school students are finding success through an alternative option to traditional careers.
For a couple of high school sweethearts, kickstarting life together is much easier now that they've graduated from trade school.
Mckenzie Martinez and Aden Buenrostro-Valle are checking off two major life milestones together.
Not only did the couple recently graduate from Central Georgia Technical College's Dual Achievement Program with a few certifications, but they're also newlyweds with a marriage license.
Martinez and Buenrostro-Valle said they met in middle school but didn't interact much.
"We knew that we existed, but we never talked to each other," Martinez explained. "When we got to high school, we had one class together, and that was Spanish."
"I thought she was too cool for me," Buenrostro-Valle recalled.
"He sat right in front of me for most of the class," Martinez remembers. "I never talked to him because I thought he was like, too cool, like one of those cool guys who was mean."
"So we never talked, I guess," Buenrostro-Valle laughed.
Then, during their junior year, the couple said they started to talk because they had mutual friends.
"I realized that she liked me, and I liked her too," Buenrostro-Valle said.
Martinez said they texted and FaceTimed each other, and eventually, she asked him out on a date to the Georgia National Fair in Perry.
Buenrostro-Valle explained he didn't have a car then, so Martinez drove them.
The couple said they share a history of a lot of laughs and a lot of love.
On their first anniversary in 2023, Buenrostro-Valle proposed to Martinez on the beach on Tybee Island.
Right before their two-year anniversary, the CGTC Students got married while completing the unique high school program. Shortly after their ceremony, their school shared their "Titan-the-Knot" story.
"It was almost our two-year anniversary," Martinez explained. "I really, really wanted it to be May 20, but it couldn't happen at that time because he couldn't be home."
After earning automotive certificates from the DAP at CGTC, Buenrostro-Valle joined the Marines.
Right now, he's stationed in San Diego; it won't be long until the two reunite.
Martinez explained that she's starting her cross-country trip with her mom on Friday, Aug. 16, to move to California.
She added she encouraged her man to join the program at CGTC while she was completing cosmetology courses.
"I'm glad that she chose the school program that she did because it helped out her life, or our life, in a way because the program she chose is good for moving so she can pick it up anywhere," Buenrostro-Valle said.
They're starting a new life together, filled with new possibilities.