After 1 year, 9 months, and 12 days together, he decided to keep her forever.

The first time we met, Grason was trying out for the debate team at SEU in the Fall semester of 2019. I thought he was cute, but we didn't start getting closer until the Spring semester. We had three classes together, shared the same major, and we were both on the debate team and in another club together, so we saw each other every single day. We studied together, hung out, worked on projects, you name it. And everything just clicked. He asked me out on our first date to a new restaurant in Lakeland in late January, and a few weeks later, on Valentine's Day, he officially asked me to be his girlfriend. And we've been together ever since (of course).

At the time, I'd had no idea that he and his family had planned this entire trip to Washington D.C. just so that he could propose to me. I had always wanted to visit the city, and I was so excited that I was seeing it for the first time with Grason. Just one thing: it was so hot, we could have melted into the pavement. When Grason asked me to marry him, we had just finished touring the Lincoln Memorial. We were sitting on some benches eating snacks, and he asked me to take a walk with him. I said "No." Normally, I would've agreed, but it was so hot that I didn't want to move at all. Little did I know I had just sent him into panic mode. A little while later, I had some trash to throw away, so he said, "Hey, there's a trash can over there. Let's go." He pointed at the furthest possible trash can from us! But I didn't say anything that time, I just followed him over there. After we got rid of our trash, we were walking back to our spot on the benches, and he said, "Let's stop here for just a minute." And he launched into this speech about how much he loved me, and how he knew that this wasn't perfect, but that life wasn't perfect, and he wasn't going to keep waiting around for the perfect moment to ask me. And that, right there, was what made it perfect. It was perfect because it was him and I, coming together.

We can't see the future, but we are absolutely positive that this will be the best day of our lives! After the wedding, we will be very excited to start law school together, and begin our lives as newlyweds!