It was a warm night in October when Aspen and I met for the first time. It would be the first of many times that we would talk about Noka, who is objectively the best dog in the world, and the first of many times that Aspen graciously laughed at my decidedly average jokes. And while it wasn’t clear to her just yet, I knew only a few days later, walking down Willard Street after our first date and our first kiss, that this time – and this girl – was different. But let’s go back to the beginning. We have to thank Holden Brayboy, one of our best friends and a classmate of Aspen’s at Wake Forest, for playing matchmaker on October 8, 2017. He’d asked Aspen to come to his birthday party that evening to meet “this really solid dude, Dan”, who had looked at Aspen’s Facebook profile picture ~17 times the previous week so he knew it was her when she walked in the door. Aspen will be the first to admit that she almost didn’t come – she’d just moved up to D.C. in August. She wanted to focus on building her career. Dan had other ideas. And so, one date turned into two, and two dates turned into three, and on December 18, Dan wrote “Will you be my gf?” in sticky notes on a pancake box (Aspen’s favorite breakfast food!), got Noka’s stamp of approval, and just like that, two people who had never been set up before and weren’t interested in a relationship were…in a relationship. It’s impossible to put into words the love and laughs and incredible experiences we shared during the 362 days it took for me to make the obvious decision to ask Aspen to marry me, so I’ll just say this. It only took me 362 days to know in my heart that Aspen Lynn Kissell was the love of my life. And so, on December 15, 2018, Aspen walked upstairs in that house at 1767 Willard Street to find a table with Chick-Fil-A (our favorite!), and champagne, Noka wearing an engagement ring balloon (obviously asked her first), and Dan with a little red box in his hand. And the rest, as they say, is history.