forever & always

kobe + katie had met several times through different events at emporia state. we both were involved in greek life and would occasionally bump into each other around emporia. we had probably only said a few words to each other up until talking at a tailgate. if it wasn't for an esu tailgate, a few beers, and several awkward moments of eye contact we never would have started this amazing love story. kobe and I immediately hit it off. our first date was a trip to braum's to get ice cream, and then we decided to start a new netflix series that had been all the rage on social media. kobe kissed me on our first date and we both promised we wouldn't watch the next episode in the series without one another. we then hung out later that weekend, and the rest is history. kobe finally asked me to be his girlfriend in november of 2018. in kobe's defense, he thought we were dating long before this. we constantly spent time together and kobe really won me over with his amazing cooking skills. we both graduated from emporia state (kobe in spring of 2019 and katie in fall of 2019). we did some pretty not fun long distance dating while kobe was on the job hunt and I was student teaching in kc. these six months really were not fun, but we made the best of it and had lots of adventures. kobe decided he wanted to go through the interview process at hutchinson police department. a part of me had my fingers crossed they wouldn't hire him because I had no interest in moving back to my hometown. he of course, nailed the interview process and fell in love with the job. I contacted my home school district and landed a job at my old elementary school two weeks after kobe accepted his job in hutchinson. we moved into our first apartment together in january 2020. we were engaged in february 2020, went through a global pandemic, adopted a cute pup, remi, and now we are ready to party and celebrate our love this october. cheers to love + happiness as the browns