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So it was my Orientation Day at USF, and I was just trying to get acclimated to this new stage of life. I was trying to get all of the information possible because I knew my mom was going to ask. However, I noticed that someone seemed to be following me wherever I went… the Honors College, the College of Business, even the dorm building! It came time for the group to do a “speed dating” exercise so we could all get to know each other, and once I talked with her, I knew I was going to be in trouble.

I was at orientation at USF, and all I could focus on was how freezing it was in all of the buildings compared to how hot it was outside. In my orientation group, we took a group selfie during one of the sessions and tweeted it. This goofy, tall, blond kid was sitting on the end of our row, so he took the selfie on my phone and made quite possibly THE funniest face I have ever seen. That same goofy, tall kid also happened to pop up everywhere I went, so I decided we would have to be pals.

It was my second semester at USF and I had started making a lot of friends. At this point, Kaylee and I did a lot of activities together with the friends we’d made on our dorm floor. One day, I was suddenly cornered by the words: “We need to talk. Want to go for a walk?” Feeling threatened, I did the logical thing and immediately went for the walk right then and there. She basically made it clear that she was DONE being in the friendzone. Little did she know: I was already planning on asking her out. Since I didn’t want her to find out that other guys were better than me, I quickly asked her out.

The people living on our dorm floor quickly became like one giant family - we had all of our meals together, did all of our homework together and sweated at an insane number of USF sporting events (because we were basically the most dedicated Bulls fans there ever were). I can 100% blame DJ for the freshman 10 because he would bring me cookies and chocolate milk what seemed like 15 times a day. I inevitably developed a massive crush on him, and though I thought he felt the same way, I was never quite sure - until I had quite possibly the most uncomfortable conversation of my entire life. My TA for Calc happened to be buddies with DJ, and after class he told me that DJ and I were going to have beautiful, blonde babies someday. Although thoroughly freaked out, I was grateful that at least someone seemed to know that DJ felt the same way. After an eternity of being incredibly patient, I finally just asked him point blank if “this” was going somewhere. He then proceeded to avoid me for 3 days, and then finally asked me out.

Our relationship reached a certain point, and we knew we wanted to get married. I was hearing this conflicting message over and over and over again: “I don’t care how you propose. I’m going to say yes no matter what. Just don’t make it dumb (cringey), or I’ll say ‘no, try again tomorrow.’” Now, my middle name is “cringey,” so I was very nervous. Finally, I got the best idea EVER. She was clueless – her nails were done and my consulting committee (full of important friends of course) had given my plan their stamp of approval. I was golden. UNTIL she decided to change the plans that week and my idea was rendered useless. She had the nerve to ask me if I want to go hiking with her and her sister in North Carolina instead. After consulting once again with my committee, I decided to propose on a mountaintop (so she couldn’t run away from me). I found the time to write a borderline poetic proclamation of my love for her, and finally bent my knee with a confidence and grace I don’t think I’ve ever had before. Although there was a small tumble, it reinforced how I felt on the inside: like I’d been falling for her since day one. She was so wooed that she couldn’t help but exclaim, “Yes!” with tears in her eyes.

So, being the control-freak planner that I am, I more or less dictated a window of time when DJ was allowed to propose so that we could get married at the time of year we were shooting for. However, I didn’t want to get my hopes up or anticipate it every time I saw him. So once we made it into that window, I always gave myself a bunch of reasons why there was no WAY it could be happening now. DJ and I discussed taking my sister on an adventure for New Year's, and then – in my true, Dory-like fashion – I proceeded to forget all about it. So then I told him we could spend that time with his family. One week before the New Year, I finally remembered my promise to my sister, booked a cabin on impulse, and told DJ we were taking Chloe to the mountains. Unbeknownst to me, I totally threw a wrench in his whole proposal plan. He pulled it off flawlessly - minus making me wait to eat lunch and falling twice - both when he got down on one knee and getting back up.

Although we might remember the details of our story slightly differently, we are absolutely in agreement on this: we are stoked to spend forever together!