Spring break my junior year of college, my close friend, Hunter Peskar, invited me last-minute to go with him and some of his friends to Myrtle Beach for the week. When we arrived that evening, we decided to go for a walk on the beach. At one point, I walked out ahead of the group by myself, and Clayton jogged to catch up with me. His opening line was “So who’s your favorite quarterback?” Smooth, right? Even though I knew very little about football at the time, we somehow hit it off. We spent the next couple of days talking, laughing, and falling way too fast. Near the end of that week, Clayton was grilling burgers for the group dinner, in the freezing cold. Everyone left him outside to grill alone, so I walked out to talk to him for a minute. I don’t quite remember what we were talking about, but at one point he put the spatula down, walked over to me in the middle of a sentence, and just kissed me. My initial thought after was “I messed that up.” Clayton, however, did not seem to mind. The weekend after spring break, on St. Patrick’s Day, we went on our first date. He threw away the Five Points ticket he had already bought (without telling me), and picked me up from my parents’ house. We ate at Takosushi, where he proceeded to spill an entire bowl of soy sauce on his jeans. The next Saturday, we went to the Aiken Steeplechase, and he asked me to be his girlfriend that night (March 24, 2018). Over the next year, we shared some incredible experiences together. We spent summer weekends on the lake and at the beach, and got to know each other’s families. We spent our fall weekends in Columbia, tailgating and hanging out with friends. For our senior year spring break, we went on a cruise to the Bahamas with six of our friends. We stressed together for our last round of final exams, and celebrated together at our graduations. Then, on June 30th, 2019 Clayton took me for a walk on the Horseshoe at USC where he asked me to marry him. I could not say yes fast enough!