The Next Adventure

We met how a great deal of millennials meet... On the internet. We matched on Tinder and spoke back and forth a little bit, quickly realizing that there was an instant connection among the shared interests and senses of humor. K gave Britt her number, and then... Nothing. Because Britt put it in her phone wrong, texted an incorrect number, and then spent a week absolutely convinced that she had been ghosted; while K was waiting for a text, thinking the exact same thing. Thankfully, K swallowed her pride and messaged Britt on Tinder again. And then never. Let. Her. Forget. It. We met for our first date at a coffee shop, which quickly moved into the bookstore next door, and then the arcade/bar down the street, and then the ramen shop. It was one of those dates where we just kept finding more things to do, rather than say goodbye. We started seeing each other as much as we could after that. Britt asked K to be her partner after a lavish Edgar Allen Poe event at a local museum - but living in two different cities (an hour apart) made week nights difficult... But then quarantine. If you can quarantine with someone in a studio apartment without driving each other crazy? Keep them.

I think that we both realized very quickly into this relationship that this was it. Everything felt so natural and so easy - we loved to travel, and even amidst quarantine and COVID managed to do some camping and isolated trips. We were camping in New Mexico when Britt realized that she needed to marry this person. At the time, we had only been together about 8 months, but something clicked and Britt got home and had a ring made. The website said that making the rings could take months, so she wasn't worried - until it came in the mail 2 weeks later. Britt is notoriously awful at keeping secrets, and even worse about losing everything that she touches, so somehow managing to keep that thing secret, hidden, and SAFE through the following 4 months and a move from Colorado Springs to Littleton was a FEAT. Britt had decided that it would be best to wait to propose until they had been together for at least a year... So it was on their exact one year anniversary that she popped the question, because she also realized that she couldn't wait any longer than that. We were in Steamboat; the streets were mostly empty and it was snowing lightly - there were lights in all of the big cedar trees, and Britt pulled K under one to tell her how much she meant to her before getting down on one knee. The inscription on the inside of the ring read 'The Next Adventure'.