Looking forward to Cox in Cabo

Thank you, Residence Hall Association (RHA). Thank you, Tk and Christina. Thank you, CU! Carolyn and I were both a part of RHA in our time at CU Boulder. We both have a passion for leadership and giving back and we were living out that passion in a couple of different roles. Carolyn was a part of RHA for more than a year before we officially "met". During my senior year and her sophomore year, we were going to be working together even more than the year before. She was a Hall Council President and I was the RHA President, forbidden love in the making. We "met" each other on one of her first days back onto campus, during training for all of the Hall Council Presidents. But here is where Tk and Christina come in. Tk, who was quickly becoming one of the most important people in my life, and I were planning a night filled with FIFA and some drinks. Tk invited his girlfriend Christina over, and she decided to bring a good friend of hers over. When she arrived in walked Christina and Carolyn. After a night of video games and awkward interactions, (completely thanks to my inability to "flirt", thank goodness I don't have to do that again) we spent time over the next couple of weeks learning about our love for family. Learning about the difficult things in our lives that we were each going through and gaining an understanding of exactly what each of us valued in our lives. I knew at this point that I only wanted to continue to learn more about this beautiful Buff and we had our official first date at the CU vs. CSU game on 8/29/2014. CU may have lost that game (they haven't lost to CSU since), but I won a partner for life.

I made the decision a long time ago that I would propose to Carolyn and when I made that decision I also knew that I just wanted it to be the two of us sharing that moment together. What better way to do that than going on a hike! One of our favorite hikes is the Coon Hill hike right outside of the Eisenhower tunnel. As the day came closer for our hike, the weather started to come into question with rain on the radar. We stuck with it and went up for the hike on 7/20/2019. As we started the hike, my nerves were running high and the clouds were rolling in. Oh was the stress kicking in and as much as Carolyn wanted to have a conversation on the way up the mountain, my physical shape and mental state meant there was no talking! As we got to a fork in the hike, with the clouds rolling in, we decided to adventure down into the valley instead of going up to the top of the mountain with possible lightning on the horizon. We found a nice place to sit in the valley, with nobody around to "rest" before what Carolyn believed to be an uneventful return journey down the mountain. I knew this was the time to ask the question. Using the idea of adventure thanks to the fork in the road on the hike, I turned to Carolyn and asked her if she enjoyed our adventure. She told me that she did. I grabbed the ring from my backpack and asked her if she was ready for our next adventure (which she believed was walking back down the mountain as she didn't see me grab the ring.) I turned and got uncomfortably down on one knee on the rock in front of her and asked if she would be my forever, in which she lovingly replied "yeah".