I met McKinley once or twice in the fall of my junior year of college, and I never in a million years would have guessed that she would become the most important person in my life. That changed when one of my friends invited her along on a trip to Miami for New Year's. I felt that talking with her was effortless and time spent with her flew by unimaginably quickly. She texted me after the trip, and we started spending time studying at Evans library between classes. After a few weeks, I decided to ask her to dinner. I distinctly remember both how nervous I was before seeing her and the peace I felt immediately after I looked up and saw her walking over to our table at the library. We got dinner at Brauhaus in downtown Bryan and looked around the shops that stayed open late for First Friday. I remember walking through the snow with her later that month and watching Interstellar together as I started to realize that I had been missing her all of my life. We dated through a summer apart, countless football games, busy school schedules, her internship, my senior design project, and almost two years' worth of experiences that were so much better because of our presence in each others' lives. I knew that I loved her and couldn't imagine life without her. She understood exactly how to make my good days better and comfort me on the challenging ones. On January 20th of 2023, I told McKinley that I had a date planned where we would visit seven different places that meant something sentimental to us. At the third place (had to catch her by surprise), Wolf Pen Creek Amphitheater, I asked her to spend the rest of her life with me. Afterwards, we went and ate dinner with some of our friends at Brauhaus to celebrate and remember our first date. Since then, we have been eagerly planning and preparing for marriage together. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Oren and I first met on a trip to Miami in 2020 for the Orange Bowl. Oren was very quick to talk and include me as I was new to the group. After Miami, the spring semester of my sophomore year began and most classes were online due to COVID. I would go to the library every day for hours to get my work done to stay on top of things. Oren “just so happened” to go to the library all day to work on his school work too. After a month of studying together, Oren asked me out to dinner while walking to my physics class. We grabbed dinner at Brauhaus in Bryan where the conversations and laughter never seemed to end. This date was the first of many. A month later Oren asked me to be his girlfriend and almost two years later he would ask me to marry him. I had the honor of finishing college with Oren by my side. We attended many A&M football games together, date parties, had endless amounts of study dates, and got to watch each other walk across the stage at graduation. Oren made the bad days good and the good days even better. I’m so thankful for the love, kindness, and gentleness Oren has brought into my life. I’m so excited to get married and see what the future holds.