Catherine’s POV: I met Patrick during my sophomore year at Marquette when we both started jobs as campus tour guides. Working this job was a highlight of both of our Marquette experiences - the group of people that worked there were so outgoing and fun, and as a group we hung out outside of our job quite often. Patrick and I became very good friends through tour guiding (and were only friends all of college, despite me having a major crush on him), and we were even neighbors for part of our junior year on 16th street at Marquette. We frequented the same campus bar, Caffrey’s, where Patrick was a bartender, and both were on orientation staff together as well that summer. There was even a point during our junior year that Patrick had told the tour guide office his sister, Maria, was visiting, and she was hanging out with the Army ROTC boys while he was cheerleading for the Wisconsin vs Marquette basketball game. I asked Patrick if I could host her instead to show her a great time with my girl friends at Marquette, and yet again because I had a major crush on him. I even got him a coveted Marquette Sailing team Patagonia jacket that were for members only. Somehow he never got the hint!! Staying really close through college, we then graduated and I moved to Seattle right away to work on Kimberly-Clark’s Amazon team. Patrick and I would text often, keeping up as friends. One day, Patrick texted me saying “I’m moving to Tacoma, stationed at JBLM!!!” And my heart skipped a beat. I told my roommate, Clara, that the boy I thought would be my “future husband” was moving to Tacoma (45 minutes from Seattle) and was jumping around our apartment. Fast forward, Patrick moves and we hang out as friends right away. I showed him all of Seattle, and we were friends for about 6 months before Patrick put his arm around me while we were watching a movie with friends (again, my heart skipped a beat). Patrick then asked me on a date that night, crossing the line from friends, and I simply could not believe it. Since then, we’ve been together, becoming officially boy friend and girl friend a few weeks later at Patrick’s birthday dinner at Anthony’s in Des Moines, Washington. Two years later, Patrick proposed at my favorite place in Seattle where it all began, the beach Discovery Park. I cannot wait to marry my biggest crush and love of my life; thank you for being a part of our journey and celebrating with us! Patrick’s POV: I met Catherine through a mutual friend, Ben Vazirani, in the stairwell of Schroeder Hall our first semester of Sophomore year at Marquette. My impression then has not changed of Catherine: she was kind, passionate, and held the same principles and values that I looked for. Fast forward a few months and we began working in the Tour Guide office together, which only brought us closer. After college, Catherine moved to Seattle and I moved to the wonderful, famous, scenic, absolutely iconic, Fort Benning, GA. The next year took me through my training, but life brought Catherine and I back together when I received my orders for Joint Base Lewis-McChord, just south of Tacoma, WA. Outside of the people sitting next to me, Catherine was the very first person I told this news to. Upon my arrival, Catherine was also (apart from my roommate Wegz!) the first person I saw in the Pacific Northwest. Through the next few months, Catherine and I continued to see each other a great amount, and our friendship only continued to grow. 2020 brought Covid-19, and brought Catherine to Cincinnati, albeit for a short 6 months. In that time, I reflected greatly on our relationship and thought about what mattered most to me in life. Catherine, as she did in 2015, was the same wonderful person I had come to know so well. I realized what an idiot I was for failing to figure it out sooner, and decided my next goal in life would be to ensure Catherine stayed in my life. That fall, (September 2nd to be exact) we started dating and the rest brings us here!