We both moved to Mississippi on the same day, to do the same thing-- volunteer for a year, and ended up walking by the same building at the same time. I had just gotten to campus and put my bag down by my dorm, and walked out of Ann Hall to go register. I open the door, and this guy is walking by. It starts raining, and he asks if he can hold an umbrella for me-- he's not going far, but at least for the hill. I told him no, I really like the rain. He tells me it's a golf umbrella, and he's pretty tall, so if I am going the same way it'll be over me anyway. We start walking, he tells me he's from Iowa, I mention I am from PA, we give a 'see you around,' and 50 feet later he walks to his car and I walked the other way. It was nothing, but the next month wasn't. A few days later we end up paired together for a 13 hour clay shoot in the middle of the woods, and the first pair of shooters get to our station and one of the guys immediately asks if I'm married, and if I want to be. That guy walked away a few minutes later, and David and I could not stop laughing. He couldn't believe it took all of five minutes into the day for me to get hit on, and we spent the next 13 hours alone in the rain listening to guns go off every few seconds-- starving, because the foundation forgot to bring lunch to only our station. We became fast friends, and from there on out he was the only person I noticed in a room-- mainly because he was staring at me. A few dozen adventures later in our first month of service, we decided to be together, and then promptly drove in different directions to spend the next two months hundreds of miles apart. Three hurricanes and two months later we saw each other again at a Red Roof Inn in Pensacola, Florida and five days later we said 'I love you.' It was perfect, we were perfect, and the whole year was a whirlwind.

When we graduated AmeriCorps NCCC in May of 2018, we went on a three month, five leg, road trip across the United States (mostly) with the best man-- Eric. Our perfectly poor timed adventure took us to 13 national parks, enough states that I lost count, and exactly three auto shops. When May ended and June began, we headed back east (sans Eric, as he grew up and got a job and left us for Memphis) and spent some time sight-seeing in New England. Our last stop was Maine, and we stayed with a good friend of ours in the small town of Waldoboro (oddly, it was Waldoboro Day and we had a hell of a time celebrating the birth of a town we'd never been to). We had been running around for months living out of our car and campsites and family homes and were exhausted, nervous about our future, and obsessed with one another. We were up late one night chatting in the guest room, sad our adventure was ending, and we ended up discussing life after our grad programs. Nevermind that we had not even moved to the states our programs were in, let alone begin classes. David off-handedly mentioned engagement, and said he'd thought about getting married after we graduated. I had no idea until that point he wanted to get engaged while in grad school, but it was an exciting revelation. Maine became our happy place. Flash-forward a year.

Our first year in grad school was both glorious and a mess. As a couple, we learned to communicate better, de-stress together, and love more patiently. We had just started to figure it all out, FINALLY, and then summer came. David went to D.C. for an internship (an awesome opportunity with the American Sustainable Business Council), and I left for Puerto Rico to continue my work in disaster relief. Adventure is in our souls, so we decided from the day we started dating that people can always choose to be in your life if they wish to stay-- opportunity is more selective. So we left on our trips, and spent a summer exploring a million other things. Then August came. David's internship ended and he was heading back, my summer came to a close and I realized I would be out of a job come fall, and we both were nervous about our second year in grad school. We had one week, and in that week we had almost no time to relax-- we're over planners, with unfortunate luck, in an unpredictable world. All we wanted was to visit endless antique shops (okay, yes, this one was for me), eat hot dogs, see the water, explore, and breathe. I figured it would be super relaxed, so after a summer of over-packed bags with everything I needed I decided to under pack, leave all my makeup, and bring zero clothes suitable for an outing. David tried to convince me otherwise, but I'm headstrong and could not possibly find a reason good enough to pack more. I am oblivious, and David (maybe) has it right being an over-packer.

One night, we decided to explore the little peninsula we were staying on-- St. George. We went down to a dock and over-ordered seafood (like us sampler types do). The sun was almost down, we were finishing up, and we walked over to the car. I so badly wanted a bubble bath, but David insisted we walk down to the end of the dock. I remember saying no, begging him to go home, but the man loves a good view. He told me it would be quick, and then we could go back to our Air bnb to relax. I start walking towards the dock, but David goes into the back of the car for some reason. I yell, "babe, what are you doing?" He said, "I was checking if that book I got earlier was in here. I couldn't remember if I brought it into the house." I figured, 'Oh, right, that makes sense because I saw it in there when we unloaded the car earlier and never mentioned to him that I left it in there.' In normal life, I never forget to remind him where things are because It soothes my soul-- but, this one day, I never mentioned it. Lucky guy. He comes to the end of the dock, I am (impatiently) looking around because the sun is basically set, and he tries to turn me around. He ends up turning me 280 degrees because I am unfocused and keep turning away, not knowing what he is doing. I turn around and ask, "what?" He says, "You know I love you, right?" I replied with an offhanded, "Of course, I love you too, but... can we go home now?" He gets down on one knee, I panic (apparently I handle surprises poorly), and as he is telling me he wants to be my home forever, I literally kept saying 'no, no, no, are you kidding?' over and over-- because I could have sworn he was not going to do THAT. He pulls out a ring, and he asks me if I will marry him. I'm thankful he asked, considering with my screams of "No!" most guys might take it the wrong way. I said yes, but I also went into shock and exclaimed, "Is that REAL?" It was real. He was serious. I'd say yes a thousand times over, and then again.