We met in September of 2014, our freshman year of college at Sacred Heart University. We were introduced by my roommate, Maria, when she invited Cameron and his roommate Justin up to our room to hang out. Our friendship was instant… the romance took a little longer. Throughout the years our friendship continued to grow, along with our feelings for each other. For 3 years we liked each other on and off, when the other wasn't available. Then, during junior year, it dawned on me just how much I liked Cameron. It took some liquid courage on a snow day, but I decided to call the unavailable Cameron and spill my feelings, to which he said “Michelene, what do you want me to do with this information?” A couple more weeks went by with no moves made by Cam, until he called me after a really bad night he had. We lived 100 yards from each other and when he came over to talk I saw my opportunity to take a chance and I kissed him. The rest, my friends, is history.

There are some days in life you wish will never end…the day I proposed will forever be one. Our journey has been one of love and happiness, and Saratoga was one of the first places Michelene brought me too when we started dating. It was only fitting that where we began our relationship, is where our future should start. With the help of her family and best friend Annabel, my job was made extremely easy ...just ask the question and be at the park by 2:30 that afternoon. Let’s just say I did one of those things on time. During the day we ate, drank, and shopped a little bit. I could have spent all day just watching her have fun, but when my watch said 3 o’clock I knew two things; first, like always, I am late and second, Annabel has been hiding behind a tree in the park for thirty minutes (probably looking like a weirdo, which she later confirmed). At the park time stood still. Michelene and I found our way to the WWII memorial, and as I looked up from the history to see her on the steps I knew the time had arrived. My plan was to take a picture of Michelene on the steps of the memorial, have her look through the pictures and scroll to my favorite picture of her, on which I wrote "will you marry me?" That backfired immediately. I took the picture and asked, “Want to look?” and was hit with “No, that’s ok.” Quick on the draw, I insisted she look and when I showed her the picture with the proposal she fell to the floor-quite literally. I had to tell her she needed to stand up... I picked her up, made sure she said yes 10 times, and in that moment, I knew our forever had started.