We met back in college when we both joined Phi Sigma Pi in the Spring of 2011. We had been friends all throughout college and after graduation, often hanging out with our larger group of college friends. The only one-on-one time we ever had often was after a house party where I would be cleaning up and stacking up cups and Joe would help while he was waiting to drive home. Fast forward eight years to 2019, Joe got back from hiking the Appalachian Trail for six months and I, who was living in North Carolina at the time, happened to be in town and attended a surprise welcome home party for him. Something just clicked that night and we started to text back and forth until we finally met up in person to explore Buford Highway right before Thanksgiving. We made our relationship "official" in January 2020 and committed to long distance between NC & GA, but little did we know that Covid would hit that March. Joe came to visit me for the 2 weeks that everyone was told to stay at home, but he ended up staying much longer - and now we joke that we've lived together ever since.

In the fall of 2022, we decided to go to Korea after a long-time waiting due to COVID to see Adria's family. When we had first started dating, Adria showed me some pictures of her mom and dad getting married in hanbok's (Korea traditional garb), and always wanted to recreate some of those pictures. We finally got to get the chance when her cousin offered to take pictures of us on Jeju Island, as he was a photographer. While we didn't get engaged that day, I had brought my great aunt Betty's wedding ring for the photo shoot, and decided that this week would be the perfect time to get engaged. I decided early on that I wanted to get engaged outside on a mountain, and we had planned on hiking the Bukhansan Mountains near Seoul, so that seemed a good time to get engaged. However, we started a bit late that day, and the conditions weren't quite right, so we just finished the hike (in the dark due to my poor planning). However, a couple days later, I once again convinced Adria and Desirae to go on a hike near her family's home in Uijeongbu. Despite still being sore from the tough hike up Bukhansan, Adria and Desirae agreed to go. While they had hiked this mountain in slippers as kids, it still was a pretty tough straight up hike. With some serious persuasion, I was able to get them up to the Buddhist temple for some pictures. We stopped for a bit, and I was able to get them to continue to the ridge line for a better view. They told me to go ahead since they were being a bit slow. I raced up the ridge to try and find a good picture spot. Once I got to the top, the trail split two ways, I went left for a quarter mile and didn't find anything. Then I went back and to the right to try and find something, and there was a boulder that you could climb to the top of. I went to the top to make sure it was safe, and about that time heard that they were struggling, so I took a quick picture figuring we would have to turn around. I got back to them, and thankfully Desirae was able to push them both to continue. I took them both to the top of the boulder, and got some food and water. I made sure Adria got some water last to make sure her pretty smile wasn't messed up by some oreos. I went to my backpack and got the ring, and about that time, an old Korean man showed up, sat down in the middle of us, and took a call. Thankfully, Adria noticed that I had the ring in my pocket and went around to the other side of the boulder so that we could have some privacy, and I told Desirae to start recording. I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me. It didn't go quite that smoothly, as I both opened the ring upside down, and completely forgot what I was going to say, and only managed to get out "Adria...." She asked "Yes?", and then I finally was able to get out "Will you marry me." She said yes, we took some pictures, and then went back to see her family. Not exactly as smooth as I planned, but still an amazing day that will mean a lot to us.