OMG! It's finally happening! On Friday, April 24th, 2026...

In February of 2020, we met UofSC's IRIS Club (Individuals Respecting Identities and Sexualities). It was a self-care themed night, and everyone sat in circles talking, painting nails, and doing hair. Juliana off-handedly mentioned to her circle that she had just started playing D&D. Caroline, who was sitting in the circle nearby, chimed in that her campaign had just ended because of a poorly timed barrel roll in an open-deck airship. Intrigued, Juliana and her group welcomed Caroline into the circle to tell the whole story (which is a truly wild ride!) When Juliana got up with her dormmates to leave, Caroline got a tugging gut feeling. It said that this was special, and to do something so that the two of us could be friends. Caroline blurted out "Hey, do you wanna be friends?" Juliana felt the same. So we swapped numbers and started texting each other. After several group hangouts at IRIS and one very memorable time in the dining hall drinking milkshakes together, our attraction towards each other was undeniable, but neither of us wanted to make a move and spoil things. We decided to set up a hangout for after spring break, on March 13th, 2020.

We did not make it to the record store. Things shut down in March of 2020 due to COVID, at first just extending spring break by a week. No problem, we could reschedule for the next week. Soon it became clear we would not be coming back to school. Ever resourceful, we planned virtual gaming hangouts instead! We built Honeybee Farms in Minecraft over many hours of chatting, recreated it in Stardew Valley, and built our islands together in Animal Crossing New Horizons. Eventually, each of us independently thought, "wouldn't it be cool to write letters to each other?" Caroline proposed the idea first, and soon letters were flying back and forth. One day, on the beach with friend Alex, Juliana talked about how much she liked Caroline, but wasn't sure if she liked her back. Alex proceeded to go through the ENTIRE TEXT HISTORY with Juliana and point out how obvious it was that Caroline was into her (spoiler, she was). On April 23rd, while playing Smash Bros with close friend Sage, Caroline talked about how much she liked Juliana and wanted to say something but didn't want to ruin the friendship. Sage encouraged Caroline to go for it, because life isn't that long, and anything worth taking a chance for is rarely easy. Emboldened, Caroline texted Juliana that "I wouldn't mind if this went somewhere." Juliana freaked out and immediately started texting her friend group for advice. There were a lot of "I told you so's" in there. After texting some more, we agreed to have a formal meeting the next day, April 24th, 2020, to decide what to do. Unsurprisingly, we decided to start our relationship, and keep seeing each other long distance and writing letters until school started in the fall.

We decided to do promise rings before a formal engagement to honor our commitment to each other. We didn't want to get formally engaged before becoming independent from school and student living. At Caroline's first Rosenberry Christmas in 2022 on Christmas morning, Juliana presented an otter themed ring to her. Caroline was totally surprised! In April of 2023, celebrating our third anniversary in a North Carolina cat cafe, Caroline gave a fruit bat themed ring to Juliana.

After a long series of events, in November of 2024, Caroline decided she couldn't wait any longer to propose. While showing off Christmas decorations to some of the Rosenberrys, Caroline brought out a handmade dove tree topper. After talking about how special it was that her parents' tree topper was also handmade, how much she loved Juliana, and how she wanted to pass the dove on down the family line, Caroline formally asked Juliana to marry her. Juliana was so surprised, she hid her face in the couch cushions! Of course, she said yes. In early February of 2025, at their favorite cat cafe, Juliana proposed back. Caroline, of course, said yes.