I was hosting just another Friday night gathering at my house on Emma Street, when in walked the prettiest girl I had ever seen. From the first conversation, there was a sense of familiarity in our connection as if we had known each other all along. After hitting it off that night, I asked to see McKenna again not knowing what would be in store. A few days later, McKenna came back over to the house to spend some time together but this time had brought her dog, Bear, along. As some of you may already know, I also had a dog at the time, Nat, who was my sidekick and best bud. My roommate also had a dog, Zeppelin, who was known to be a feisty little guy. Long story short... a dog fight ensued almost instantly upon McKenna arriving. McKenna immediately and regretfully attempted to break up the fight and as a result was bitten by my dog, Nat. If you knew Nat, you know that he was the sweetest and most gentle dog when it comes to people and had bitten McKenna's hand without realizing it was her. Immediately, you could see the surprise and remorse wash over his face. McKenna's hand was pretty badly cut open, so I took her to the ER to get it stitched up. I obviously felt just as terrible as Nat did that MY dog had bitten the girl I Iiked and hadn't known for a week at that. After a long ER visit, and casted arm, I asked McKenna if she would like to stay the night so I could help take care of her. Little did we know that one night would be the catalyst to where we are today. McKenna ended up spending several nights with me where we laughed, had deep conversations until 6am, and fell in love. 9 short years later here we are making the biggest promise of our lives and could not be more thankful for that night.

Little did McKenna know, my family and I had been planning the proposal for months. As soon as my parents surprised us with a trip to Maui in June, I knew there wasn't a more perfect time or place to ask her to spend forever with me. On June 3rd, my family made "plans" for a sunset happy hour and fancy dinner, knowing McKenna would wear her nicest outfit. We planned to meet downstairs at 3:30pm and drive together. We got ready and headed downstairs and that's when I told McKenna that I had a surprise for her and it was just the two of us going on an "adventure." We ended up driving a Jeep about 45 minutes north along the coastline of Maui with beautiful scenery. She asked me roughly a million times where we were going, but I just told her to wait and see. We finally reached our destination, Turtle Bay, which was a famous cliff view of the sunset, ocean, and mountains. We walked out to the edge of the cliff where I handed her a scrapbook of core memories we have made over the last 9 years. After she finished reading, I asked her to spend forever with me. Thankfully she said yes, and we get to share the most important day of our life so far together on September 22, 2023.