We were both pursuing minors in Spanish upon starting college at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in fall of 2015. As chance would have it, Jacob sat behind me--but we rarely spoke. In October of that first semester, our Greek houses had a "dinner exchange" where the men of PIKE came to dinner at the Gamma Phi Beta house. I (Cassidy) looked around the room and recognized Jacob, shrugging and figuring we could at least talk about Spanish class. After the pleasant dinner ended (where I learned that people who study actuarial science are not in fact called "actuarial scientists"), I walked Jacob to Gamma Phi's door and said goodbye, thinking I would see him in class in a couple of days. Meanwhile, a Gamma Phi who knew Jacob from high school thought to play matchmaker and sent Jacob my phone number, unbeknownst to me. I received a text (or two) from Jacob and promptly ignored them... After a few weeks of pretending like I didn't want to go on a date with Jacob, I accepted his invitation to a Halloween formal and an official brunch at the Egg and I. By December, we officially started dating and now it's been 6+ of the best years together!
The thoughtful and intentional person that he is, Jacob originally planned to propose on Saturday, May 15th.He had hoped to fill the day with some of my favorite things: hiking, bookstores, and picnic dinners, all prior to a surprise engagement party with our families in Lincoln. The Nebraskan forecast had other, stormier plans for that Saturday, though! This meant that Jacob had to quickly change course the week of the planned engagement to make sure at least part of his plan could play out. On Thursday, May 13th, 2021, Jacob drove down to Lincoln from Omaha (where he was living/working at the time) to go on a picnic date with me. I had been hanging out with some of my friends from grad school and ended up a little late to our planned meeting at Holmes Lake-- the sun may have been starting to set when we got there, and our friend/photographer Allyssa Hynes may have been sitting in tall grass for longer than anticipated! We walked to a hidden part of the lake and put down our blanket where Jacob had told Allyssa to be waiting. I sat down and promptly started eating the food we'd packed (sushi from Blue Sushi)... Jacob asked me to put the edamame down and that he needed to "tell me something". Nervously, I looked up and he began to talk. Long story short, he asked me to marry him and I said yes! In his change of plans, he had put together a small group of our best friends to surprise us at my house in Lincoln and we felt so celebrated all night! We then got to celebrate with our families on Saturday, when the sun decided to shine all day!