Blayke and I became friends before we ever started to date. I always remember most how kind she was when we first talked. We met at our mutual friends' Filipino Christmas party. During the celebration, we found out one of my coworkers had passed away. I remember vividly Blayke not just offering condolences, but asking genuine questions that helped us celebrate our coworker. She was a complete stranger and spoke to me more kindly than anyone I had ever met. More than nine months later, we went on our first date and our conversations felt as right as the day we met. She's a beautiful person inside and out, and I knew almost immediately that I would someday marry her.

Even from the early days of dating, it didn't take long to see that our connection was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. Within less than a year, we moved in together in an adorable Nashville condo. I convinced Jason to apply for a job back home in Colorado. We moved across the country during the early days of the pandemic, me without a job but knowing as long as we were together, everything would be OK. The years began to pass. We adopted our dog, Nash. We bought a house. And I would joke when Jason was going to get me my "sparkly." Almost exactly four years after we first started dating, we began the road trip of a lifetime, with stops at seven national parks across Utah and California on our way to watch Jason's best friend tie the knot in Yosemite. For those who know Jason well, you know he's not one to keep a secret (unless, of course, it's from a source for work). The first stop of our trip was in Colorado wine country, Palisade, and we had already partaken in a few winery stops. Back at the Airbnb before dinner, the all-too-common "sparkly" joke came up, and Jason said, "If I had a ring right now, would you say 'yes?'" I said, of course, but was certain he didn't have a ring. But he did have a ring, hidden inside a pair of socks, ready for an engagement at the top of a mountain the next day before the words had tumbled out. And I wouldn't have had it any other way.