Evan and I met at the biology department picnic at the end of grad school orientation. Throughout the semester Evan had such smooth pick-up lines as “What do you think is on the field ecology midterm?” and “What are the poster dimensions for this project?” I begrudgingly answered and remained ignorant to any interest. A few months, several Friday nights of penny drinks, and many weekends of fieldwork later I realized I really liked hanging out with Evan, even in the less than ideal circumstances of doing fieldwork hungover. We played it slow because it seemed like a bad idea to get involved with someone in our lab that we had to work with so much. Good sense lost out though, but I’m happy with the results.
I suggested to Sarah that we visit our old field site, to see what changed. It's where we spent the better part of three years doing fieldwork together and during which time we started dating. Despite the winter weather advisory due to dangerously cold temperatures and likely as a reaction to people calling her soft for living in the desert, she thought that would be fun. After hiking through the snow, we reached the portion of the site that overlooks a pond; I stopped to help the dog with her paw. When Sarah looked back, I was down on one knee and proposed. She said “yes,” and aside from me needing help figuring out which hand to put the ring on, it was pretty successful.