We first "met" during move in week of college, but didn't truly speak to each other until 3 years later at the end of junior year of 2020 during the pandemic. Grant was sent home from his dorm, while I stayed at my apartment at SLU. We matched on a dating app where Grant had used a lame pick-up line, and somehow it worked! He mentioned that one night and how he remembered me from when we met during move in week, and we continued to get to know each other. This was spent through countless hours & even into days of texts, Snapchats, and FaceTime calls from May-August while Grant was working all summer in Nevada and I was working in St. Louis. We had planned to go on an official date when he moved back to SLU a week after school started. However, plans changed because we were too excited to finally spend time together after talking all summer that I went over to Grant's apartment on the first night before senior year started & spent it with his other one true love: the St. Louis Blues. We had watched the hockey game (meaning I talked through the whole thing) and the rest is history!

We had planned to go to Chicago and stay overnight as our Christmas gift to one another because we like to do experiences instead of gifts. On the way to dinner, Grant insisted that we go on the riverwalk in Chicago, and I stubbornly said "No, it's too cold, we have been there before, and it will take longer". He asked to go again, so I had a feeling it was going to happen. Grant got down on one knee with no one around and the lights in the city behind them, and I said yes! He wrote me a note that was kept in the ring box for me to read at dinner; it was a perfect evening.