While our six years (by the time most of you are reading this) have been full of trials, travels, and triumphs; our meeting was quite mundane—so much so that we don’t even quite agree on when or where it happened. As the designated “rememberer” of the couple, I (Mark) will describe what I remember. Leslie and I both attended Minnesota State University Moorhead (the coldest college in the U.S. according to Huffington Post) and were participating in the usual forced freshman socialization. MSUM has what are called Student Orientation Counselors (SOCs), and each SOC has a group of freshmen they are supposed to orient, etc. These groups are often determined by your Freshmen Year Experience (FYE) class section and/or your Living and Learning Community (LLC). After all those acronyms, the only important thing to know is that we were not in the same one of any of those. I was, however, in all the above with Leslie’s high school classmate and friend, Kristi Hermanson (now Clark). As a member of two LLCs (Honors and STEM), Leslie had opted to live in the STEM LLC, while I was in the Honors one. Kristi wanted to make sure that Leslie was quickly acquainted with the rest of the Honors community and thus invited her to meet us after the campus scavenger hunt. As was often the case throughout college, Leslie brought along fellow Mandan-er McKenzie Zacha. The location I remember distinctly: we met at the corners of Ballard Hall and the Library, a stone’s throw away from the trademark dragon statue (previously owned by a Chinese restaurant). While it is a fire-breathing dragon, there were no fireworks or other dramatic meet-cute components. There were individual introductions among the group, facilitated by Kristi. Neither of us was immediately smitten by the other. Rather, our relationship grew from a friendship fostered over the months and years that followed until I convinced her that maybe having a boyfriend during college wasn’t actually the worst thing possible. And as they say, the rest is history.

Those of you who know us know that Leslie and I are pretty low-key. Our meeting was casual—practically forgettable. Our relationship developed slowly, and our first date was an event we had previously attended together platonically (FM Symphony Orchestra). While I did not (and do not) think that a proposal has any need to be a spectacle, I did want it to be both meaningful and a surprise. When you’ve been dating for as long as we had, the surprise part gets more difficult. The setting for the proposal was handed to me by Leslie. Leslie and her family go to the Medora Musical every single year. This year (2022) I was visiting them over the 4th of July so that I could partake in the Mandan festivities and go to the musical. The day we had gotten musical tickets was 7/7/22—which is both the birthday of my grandmother and godmother and unarguably a pleasing numerical date (a strong request from Leslie). Once the tickets had been purchased, I moved forward with plotting. My research uncovered a near-perfect opportunity: the guest act for the musical that day would be a ventriloquist comedienne named Lynn Trefzger who usually incorporates audience participation into the finale of her act. Through patience and diligent emailing, I received confirmation the week before that we were a go for approximately a 30-second window at the end of her act. And so, after “volunteering” to be a part of the finale and dragging Leslie down with me, we played a role (dummies) in a very entertaining final portion of her set. In contrast to our low-key nature, At the conclusion, while the other volunteer walked off the stage, on stage in front of 2000+ people, I pulled my grandmother’s wedding ring from my pocket and got down on one knee. She, of course, said yes (everyone cheered), and we returned to our seats to enjoy the rest of the show.