It all began on July 12, 2019. Hayden had invited the guys down to a beach house in Oceanside for the weekend, along with a few girls I hadn’t met before. One of them was Carolyn. To be honest, we didn’t say much more than a hello that day, but we did the modern day handshake and followed each other on Instagram. About a week later, I noticed she had already unfollowed me. I eventually learned this was part of her post freshman year social cleanse, but at the time, I just took the hint and figured I’d probably never see her again. I headed back to the Illinois Institute of Technology, she went back to Purdue, and that was that. Or so I thought. Fast forward to 2020. The world shut down and like everyone else, we were sent back to our childhood bedrooms. What we thought would be a three week break turned into months of uncertainty. One night, our friend Aaron decided he was going to start a podcast and asked for my help building a table for his studio. He mentioned he was having the group over later and told me I should stay. With literally nothing else to do, I figured, why not? That evening, the group arrived and there was Carolyn, who for the record still didn't follow me. What started as a spontaneous hangout turned into a six month stretch where our quarantine pod spent nearly every single day together. Within that group, Carolyn and I became inseparable. She was funny, smart, and quickly became the person I could always count on. Despite the constant whispers from our friends, we insisted we were just friends. And we were right up until we weren't. By October 2020, we were spending almost every day together. On October 9th, I finally worked up the nerve to ask her if she wanted to go to Downtown Disney. Carolyn was immediately suspicious. She had actually briefed her sisters beforehand that if I invited the boys, it was just a hangout, but if it was just her, it was a date. When I pulled up to her house alone, she knew the game was up. I tried to play it cool by telling her I had invited the guys but they were all busy. That was a total lie as I hadn't asked a single one of them, which is a confession I managed to keep hidden for an entire year. That night, Carolyn flat out asked what was going on. I admitted there were feelings, and after a few days of worrying if we’d ruin the friend group, I decided it was worth the risk and asked her on an official date. Our first date on October 11, 2020, was a comedy of errors. I had planned a nice evening at Margaritaville at Universal CityWalk, only to arrive and find out the restaurant had permanently closed the day before. With the rest of CityWalk looking like a ghost town, we ended up at the only place with the lights on: Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. It was exactly as romantic as it sounds. Between the touristy decor and the less than stellar shrimp, I’ve accepted that I will never live down taking her there for our first date. The night peaked when we stopped for frozen yogurt at Menchie’s. The guy in line in front of us dropped his entire cup of yogurt directly onto my shoe, stared at me in silence for three seconds, and then just walked out of the store. No apology and no napkins, just vibes. But as we stood there staring at my froyo covered shoe, we didn't get annoyed. We just laughed. It was the perfect foreshadowing for our relationship because things rarely go exactly to plan, but we always have the best time anyway. A few days later, on October 16, we went to Huntington Beach. After dinner at BJ’s and a long walk, I asked Carolyn to be my girlfriend. We spent the next 21 months mastering the art of FaceTime and airport security lines while she was at Purdue and I was at LMU. We saw each other every 4 to 8 weeks, which mostly consisted of counting down the days until the next flight.

In May 2023, the long distance chapter finally ended when Carolyn moved home for good. Since then, we’ve traded the Indiana to California flights for stamps in our passports. We’ve caught the travel bug together while navigating the mountains of Austria, the coastlines of Greece and Italy, and the wilderness of Alaska. We’ve survived missed trains, 10 hour road trips, and the realization that we actually like each other even more when we’re lost in a foreign country. Very quickly into our relationship, I knew that I wanted Carolyn in my life forever. By April of 2025, I made the decision to propose that July. I started floating ideas off Will and Christian, and luckily, a perfect opportunity presented itself. Will and Clare were moving to Boston in August for Will’s PA school, so Clare helped me use that as a cover. We planned a final girls day brunch at Terranea Resort to celebrate her last weeks in town. The Tuesday before the big day, I went to the resort with Will to scout the perfect location. We found a beautiful spot called Catalina Point and finalized the plan. Honestly, the hardest thing I have ever done was keeping the secret and continuously lying to Carolyn about my whereabouts. On July 20, 2025, Carolyn went to Clare and Christine’s house to get ready and the girls went to Terranea for brunch while the guys and I arrived a few hours later. After lunch, the girls convinced Carolyn to take a walk around the resort. I was waiting about 500 feet away overlooking the ocean, surrounded by our future bridal party and our closest friends. Right there, I asked Carolyn to marry me, and now I am writing this story for our wedding. I cannot put into words how lucky I am to soon call Carolyn my wife and partner for life. Anyone who knows her understands just how intelligent, charismatic, funny, and deeply loving she is. She lights up every room she enters with her smile, and I cannot wait for you all to see how beautiful she looks on our wedding day. Looking back at our journey together, we’ve come a long way from an Instagram unfollow and a mediocre shrimp dinner. We can’t wait to see what’s next, and we promise there won't be any Bubba Gump served at the wedding. -John