While we may not be able to give you an exact date of when we first laid eyes on each other, we can tell you that our relationship started as a very unusual friendship my freshman year and Noah's sophomore. To those around us we may have seemed pretty mean to each other, with our back and forth banter and sarcastic jokes, but to us we quickly became each other's best friends. After being influenced by friend's little comments and experiencing Noah's kind heart and joyful presence myself, I knew this friendship meant so much more to me than I would lead on. While it took Noah a little longer to realize how awesome I was for him, he would soon come to his senses and ask me out on our first date in the Pines on January 3, 2020.

Depending on who you ask, our proposal may have been a little obvious. It was the weekend of Ali's graduation. All of her family was in from Illinois, my family drove up for the occasion, and it was on from there. The weekend really started Thursday night when everyone arrived into town and it didn't stop until they left to fly back Sunday. Ali walked across the stage Friday morning, and we had time to celebrate her over dinner Friday night. The next day was going to be her graduation party at my parents house in Seven Devils, but what she didn't (or did) know was it was actually our engagement party. Saturday morning rolls around and we have breakfast with her family and I was adamant about taking her out to lunch to celebrate her graduating. After her asking "why do we have to go to lunch?" in about 100 different variations, she finally agreed. When I picked her up for lunch Saturday, I told her our good friend August needed something to be moved into his truck at the Church that we went to. I told her it would be quick, but going there was definitely out of the way from lunch. When we arrived to the church, obviously August was nowhere to be found, but on the doorstep of the church was a single rose and a bottle of her favorite wine. I was shaking at this point btw. So I proceeded to explain why we were there and that the last time I gave her one single rose, I asked her to be my girlfriend (Ali is a big bachelor fan), but this time I was asking her to be my wife. I then dropped to a knee and gracefully asked "Ali, will you marry me?" as one singular tear sat on my left eyelid. She in full excitement screamed, "OF COURSE!"