The first time I saw Sarah Cheatham, she was arriving about 20 minutes late to a course we were taking at Texas State. She was out of breath and wearing gray sweatpants and a t-shirt that had a variety of different colors of paint smeared in splotches all over, she grabbed a seat near the door without a word. I wouldn't say it was love at first sight but I definitely took notice of her and thought it was amusing that she would consistently fly into the classroom late, like Kramer, in a similar state. Once of those times she sat down directly in font of me and noisily unpacked her backpack. She asked me what she had missed, and that was the first time we spoke. I am pretty sure all I said was "nothing important". On the very last day of that course, a completely different woman arrived, on time, and put together, as she was going to present her final project. Sarah's project was to present a lesson plan aimed at the age group she would go on to teach, Kindergarten. Her lesson was based around having kids read a story and then creating the cover art for the book they had read. Her presentation went ok, but the example illustrations she had painted were far better than they needed to be, and I, who happened to be planning an art show at the time, had a reason to talk to this beautiful girl.

The plan was to propose to Sarah in Bolivar in front of her family's beach house. Mallory, Sarah's sister, and I had crafted a story about a photographer coming to take maternity photos for Mallory and her husband, and since there was going to be a photographer there we were going to take some family photos as well. when it was mine and Sarah's turn, I'd propose and our families would come out and celebrate with us for the weekend at the beach. That was the plan. All this was to take place on Valentine's Day weekend in 2021. However, about a week before that the weather forecast began to become a concern. What started as a cold front, with a little rain and sleet, ended up being the biggest snow storm the state had seen in nearly 50 years. Although Sarah didn't question it, my photographer store made less and less sense, but the timeline was locked in. Out of state flights and beach house rentals were booked, so I had to switch gears. If you ever need a reservation to a nice restaurant on short notice, tell them you are trying to propose and that a snow storm is ruining your life. I checked my pocket for the ring throughout the entire meal and tried to think of how to transition the conversation into a proposal, the rarest of segues. I hadn't planned on having a speech ready at the beach, just the photographer. When the meal was finished I asked the waiter if we could have our last drink by the fireplace. Once there, thankfully, Sarah herself began to talk more romantically about our future and buying a home. Eventually she said while pointing at her ring finger, "and I know, not yet, but when we do get married-" and I interrupted her and said, "I actually wanted to talk to you about that."