Dan began attending Butler in 2009 and I began attending in 2011. In 2010, he cheered on the Butler basketball team in the NCAA National Championship in Hinkle Fieldhouse. A few sections over, I was doing the same with my family and friends, but we were still a year away from actually meeting one another. During my freshman year, I tried out for the club volleyball team. Dan helped out at tryouts, practices, and tournaments. His first impression of me was not a positive one. Not surprisingly, I was mad that a water bottle was knocked over and no one took the time to pick it up, which got peoples' bags wet. His first thoughts were, "That girl is crazy." By Spring of 2013, we were hanging out 4 days a week, each helping with the other's volleyball practices. Eventually, we began seeing each other. Dan graduated from Butler a few months later and moved back to his hometown in Illinois, beginning our 3-year long distance relationship. Those years included a full-time job for Dan, a summer of camp counseling, a semester in London, two years of college, and one year of teaching in Indianapolis. Through it all, we made efforts to see each other whenever possible and share our lives with one another. In 2016, I moved to Illinois and a year later, Dan bought a house. It's been nothing but paint cans and trips to Home Depot ever since. Well, except one thing. In January 2020, we found ourselves driving to Michigan in the middle of a snow storm to pick up a 6-week old chocolate labradoodle. He is a tornado and absolute nightmare, but we love him so so much. Walnut is the best.

When a few friends and I were getting ready for a weekend at their childhood summer camp for a retreat in March 2019, Dan planned for something else entirely. All weekend, I was enjoying Pyoca and the company of my friends while Dan was busy improving our garage- or so I thought. On Sunday morning, I was at the closing worship service to end the retreat. Meanwhile, Bridesmaid Kaitlyn assisted getting Dan and my sister, Kelsey, in position. When the retreat wrapped up, the girls headed to the Peace Garden for pictures. It's a beautiful spot that overlooks the lake. When we reached the end of the path, I saw Dan standing in the distance. I immediately began crying as the realization of what was happening set in. It turned out Dan stopped at a jewelry store on Christmas Eve 2018 and in February, secretly took a personal day, drove to Indianapolis, picked up the ring, and spoke to my parents and sister. I had no idea. I didn't even notice when one of our friends mentioned he wanted to get a mani/pedi together. Or when one of Dan's coworkers brought up the personal day on speaker phone! On the weekend of the proposal, Dan ended his work project day early, picked up flowers, and drove to Indianapolis. On Sunday morning, he and Kelsey drove to camp, hid in a friend's car until they could get to the Peace Garden, and pulled off the most perfect proposal I could have ever imagined.