The Library Sports Bar, Oxford, Mississippi. February 7, 2015. It was the night of the last game of the SEC Tournament. The Ole Miss hockey team had lost the game that day, but in true Ole Miss fashion, they "never lost a party." We met with perhaps the worst pick-up line ever spoken (Justin is still very proud of it), and somehow it worked. By the next hockey season, I was wearing his jersey to every game, and the rest is history.

Every great surprise has to start with a lie. In this case, the lie was that we were going to SLUH's bicentennial celebration on Saturday, April 21, 2018. It's the lie that got us dressed up and it's the lie that got us to Forest Park, albeit thirty minutes late thanks to a certain someone. The truth was that there was a bicentennial celebration at SLUH, but Jessi and I were not going to be going. As we walked around near the Jewel Box, I let Jessi in on the secret I had been holding on to for what felt like an eternity: we were going to see Hamilton at the Fox. Just going to see Hamilton was not enough for me, though (I'm selfish, I suppose), so I told Jessi I'd like it if she went as my fianceé. I think the ring was already on her finger before I actually remembered to ask her if she'd marry me, but once I did she said yes, through the smiles and the laughs and the the tears. We then celebrated the only way we knew how: drinking fancy champagne in the parking lot of our favorite pizza place (Imo's) before heading inside for a large cheese pizza and an order of garlic cheese bread. Seeing Hamilton, which was honestly a harder secret to keep than the ring, was the perfect end to the day - even if Jessi doesn't really remember it because she was too busy looking at her ring.