We met at Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, PA through mutual friends. Even though Nick and I were never in the same class, I would find myself walking him to to his classes to spend extra time with him. I would also often meet with Nick and our mutual friend Conner for lunch most days. Nick was the main chauffer for his friends in his silver Dodge Journey and would, at times race me home because our commutes were the same. We would talk almost every day because we had similar schedules. I remember at the end of the school year Nick's gift to me was his phone number. We ended up talking even more and now here we are 7+ years later!

Penguins are Gabrielle's all-time favorite animal. Before COVID we were planning a trip to the aquarium to feed the penguins, but we never got around to doing it. Finally, (a few years later) for Gabrielle's Christmas present I gifted her Maryland Zoo tickets with a Penguin Encounter, to give her an up-close and personal experience with penguins, that included petting them, and learning more about them. I told her "These tickets are good for a year, so we have time to plan for when you want to go!" Gabrielle decided that we could go sometime in February to celebrate our anniversary which was the 17th. Unfortunately the 17th was unavailable, so we picked February 26th. Leading up to the date Gabrielle would frequently remind me it was coming up, tell me me how excited she was, and would repeat "This is going to be the best day of my life". (Little did she know that I intended to make it even more memorable for her.) We got to the zoo around 11:00am and saw all the other animals, as our encounter was not until 2:00pm. Gabbie would eagerly keep checking the time every hour or so, and when it came to about 1:45 we practically ran to the penguin exhibit. I waited until the end of the encounter when the lady announced "The encounter is almost over, so those who want to take last-minute photos with the penguins, now is your chance." I handed my phone to the keeper and asked her to keep it on “video mode”. As Gabbie leaned in to take a photo with the penguin named "Pearl" I stood up, got down on one knee and asked Gabrielle to marry me! She said YES!! She had absolutely no idea and said, this was in fact, The BEST day of her life!