Let me tell you a story of repeat first impressions, a long courtship, a serious fever and ultimately love. The first time we met was at a party. Vicky Lisle, who kept my social life active during junior year introduced me over a game of beer pong. Deanna made fun of my skills, though if anyone was going to insult me, I'm glad it was someone pretty. Deanna doesn't remember me from that night. The second time we met was also at a party. Deanna doesn't remember me from that night either... Our story really begins in our innovation class, knowing that it was better to do group projects with people who you knew (or at least looked vaguely familiar from that party). We studied, shared work, came up with a cool robot mannequin and I mispronounced her name in front of the whole class. We became friends and I valued this early relationship a lot. I decided I wanted more and so I invested my attention into moving things forward. I got invited to work on her weird floor futon. I listened to her talk about dumb boys who weren't me. I met Courtney Burke and listened to her talk about dumb boys that weren't me. It was going well. Over the summer I finally worked up the courage to ask her to dinner. I took her to my favorite sushi place in Germantown AND I brought her a cupcake. She didn't think it was a date. I was a gentleman and didn't push the issue. From there, we kept getting closer. I helped her put up posters in her dorm and finally got her to kiss me. Our second real date involved pizza and me violently shaking with fever for a few hours, but Deanna took care of me and I knew she was someone I didn't want to lose. It was Halloween where we made our relationship official and from there we never looked back. She brings the best out of me and I...make her laugh...and there's no one I'd rather spend the rest of my life with.

At the beginning of our junior year at UMD, my friend Vicky introduced me and David at her apartment before we all went out together. It wasn't much of a romantic meeting considering that I trash-talked David's technique during a game we played, but I do remember thinking he was fun to be around. He will claim I don't remember us meeting a few other times, but for me, I really took notice of David in our spring semester - when we shared a class together. Early in the semester we had a group project, and because we both knew Vicky, I asked if he'd like to be in my group. Despite calling me Dee-AH-nah during our presentation for the project, we continued to chat and even study together. I began to consider David one of my good friends, someone I could turn to for sound advice and vent about daily college frustrations. We stayed such good friends that our conversations lasted through our summer internships. Towards the end of the summer, David mustered up the courage to ask me to meet up for dinner after work. I tried to make clear that I was meeting up as a friend...but he brought me a cupcake from Baked & Wired and we talked for hours...so I think I was in a bit of denial of where our relationship was heading. It wasn't until we met up back at school, he came to help me set up my dorm building with posters (since I was an RA), shared our first kiss...and I called Tebine, who asked me point blank why I kissed him...that I realized David may be more than just a friend. It didn't take long for me to lean into this discovery and spend a majority of my time with David. And right after my 21st birthday trip to Vegas (which we will hound him for not coming to FOREVER), we made it official. And as they say, the rest is history ♥️