Our story begins when we met on the same bus route in first grade. TJ sat next to my best friend and me; we all quickly became close. Throughout elementary school, junior high and high school, all of us remained friends. Various friends tried to tell us that we should start dating because we always messed with each other and argued like we were an old married couple. But, we did not want to believe that those playful feelings were romantic ones. During sophomore year in 2015, we started dating when he asked me to the homecoming dance. We continued to date throughout high school and college and nine years later, we are getting married.

In September of 2021, TJ told me that his parents want to go on a long weekend trip. We went to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, to celebrate our 7 year anniversary and TJ's 21st birthday. They wanted to rent a house so our friends, and TJ's parents, could take a trip together to his favorite place. Little did I know that this trip had another meaning. We decided to take the tram to the top of the mountain called "Ober". We took pictures at the outlook and TJ got down on one knee in the middle of our pictures and of course I said "YESSSSSSS". The rest of the weekend was a celebration for us. After learning about the year of plans that it took to pull off this surprise, I found out that this weekend was originally always planned as our "Proposal Weekend and Celebration".