It was my first year at Mills College and my girlfriends and I were getting ready for the most anticipated party of the year. Mind you, a party at Mills (an all women’s college) was nothing to get too excited about. We actually showed up pretty early and ended up leaving to go back to the dorms for a while. On our way out, we heard a group of guys shouting at us. Finding any group of “single” guys at an all women’s college was nothing short of a miracle. (You will have to read Jason’s full account of the evening). After a fun night, Jason and his buddies “accidentally” took my friend’s flask home with them. My friends and I always thought that it was their sneaky way of making sure that they would see us again. It didn’t take much effort, but it eventually worked. About nine months later, I got a text from Jason asking how I was doing and reminding me that he had my friend’s flask. It took a while with our busy schedules, but eventually, we went on our first date. Shortly after that, Jason asked me to be his girlfriend on March 14, 2010. Eight years later, he finally proposed, and here we are getting married!
It all started almost a decade ago, when I was a sophomore in college. My friend shows me a Hustler magazine (Kelly still doesn’t believe this part) and asks me ”Have you heard of this college?!” and points to an article about Mills College in Oakland. So we do a little research and find out that this party they were talking about in the article was THIS WEEKEND! We were certain we were going to get in. We drive to the college and get to the front gate. GUARD ON DUTY at the gate. “Evening sir,” I say. “What can I do for you boys?” Out of nowhere I just say, “We’re here to see our friend Sarah Johnson.”(I have no idea who Sarah Johnson is). He says, “Hold on one minute. I thought, “Well, it was a good try boys, he’s going to figure us out real quick.” But then, the guard comes back out with a piece of paper with our license plate number on it and ‘visitor pass’ written on it. He hands it to us and says, “Have a good night.” We got out of my truck like three American spies ready to get into this foreign party. We look around and the event was surrounded by an eight foot tall concrete wall and a big female bodyguard at each corner. So we go up to the front and I try to pull the “oh my friend is inside” trick. And that was not happening. So we were sitting out front on the grass like “what are we going to do now?” My buddy Bryce with a last ditch effort yells at one of the groups of girls going in, “Hey, where’s the party at!?” And almost immediately this group of girls stops and turns right to us. They asked, “Are you boys here alone?” Then each of them grabs one of us guys and walks us right up to the front. Kelly and I were drawn to each other right away. I asked her to dance and then we talked for a while. After finding out her birthday was at midnight that night, I made sure that I was the first one to tell her Happy Birthday. And after getting her number, I’ve been lucky enough to be the first person to tell her happy birthday every year since.