To make things short and straight to the point, I met The Love of My Life in 6th grade. I was new to the school district and knew only those whom I was playing tackle football with. I of course noticed her on the first day of school and took a mental note that she was a good candidate to marry, as you may know, that is something all 6th graders should think about. I had 6th-hour science class with her as well as 7th-hour social studies. Although I never did anything to stand out to her, she stood out to me as I thought she was the most gorgeous and smartest girl ever. I knew she was the most beautiful girl ever. My naïve 6th-grade mind thought that the song “You Don’t Know You’re Beautiful” by One Direction was written literally about her. In the very first seating chart in 6th-hour science, I was placed a seat behind and one seat to the left of her. I fell hard for her. In 7th grade, we both played trumpet and I asked her if she would like to play a duet with me. I honestly do not remember anything about that proposal other than the fact that it seemed to me that it was the biggest question I had ever asked anyone to that point in my life and when she said yes, all the feelings of joy and happiness filled my heart. We eventually played “When the Saints Go Marching In” at our middle school’s solo ensemble. We practiced together just once because she found out that I "like liked" her and we both became extremely shy around each other. I ended up asking her out in October of 2013 to which she responded with, “I’ll think about it,” so I waited and waited for a response. I finally asked her again in May of 2014, and she said yes! We then experienced our middle school relationship up until April of 2015 when she broke up with me as we both needed to grow into our own persons. We did not talk other than about school-related topics but only when we absolutely needed to. For example, during our senior year of high school in our Calc AB/BC class, I was easily running through the material since I had taken Calc AB the year before and Grace needed some help. Mr. Christensen placed me directly next to her for a whole unit and told me that he wanted me to help Grace with her work… I think I spoke one sentence to her that whole unit so that is how the rest of high school went between us (Grace would like to add that I did not help her). Fast-forward a few years and I hit a rough patch during 2020. I reconnected with a long time friend who helped me find my way back to Christ. I started regularly visiting UW-Osh’s Newman Center. On the night of St. John Paul II’s feast day, the Newman Center was having an all-night-long adoration in which I repeatedly told myself that I wasn't going to attend and after repeatedly fighting with myself if the 30-minute drive was worth it, I finally made it down to Oshkosh from Menasha. During the adoration, I attempted to pray a rosary and a voice entered my mind telling me to talk to Grace. I was very concerned and mad at the distraction as it repeated itself during prayer. After talking with some of my friends, a missionary, and the chaplain at the Newman Center, I was told to at least reach out. Frustrated that the voice was still there throughout prayer, I devised a plan that during winter break, I would reach out to Grace. Winter break started and an amazing occurrence of events took place. A coffee shop catch-up with someone who I did not consider a friend blossomed into an amazing courtship. I did not expect myself to fall head over heels for the girl who I once knew over half a decade ago. Throughout January, we went on many unofficial dates and attended a Catholic Conference together. We decided maybe we should try dating each other again. We both had grown into our own person and the many different personal experiences have shaped us into who we are today. We finally officially started dating in March of 2021 when she came home for the weekend to visit me and everything since has been a dream.

Carsten and I met in Mrs. Myers 6th grade science class at Maplewood Middle School. At the beginning of the school year, I sat a few seats away from him and I remember thinking that he was cute and smart. He also wore round glasses, similar to Harry Potter. Long story short, we dated from the end of 8th grade through freshmen year of high school. We reconnected in December 2020. I worked at Culver's of Darboy and happened to ask the cashier at the drive-thru window if they wanted a drink break and I would cover for them. I opened the window to cash out the next car and it was Carsten. I got flustered and I know I forgot to give him their drinks. I wasn't sure if he would recognize me since it had been a few years and I was wearing a mask. After I told Carsten to pull ahead, I got someone to take over for me cashing out the drive-thru because I was a mix of rusty at that position and shocked. Later that night, Carsten messaged me and asked to catch up sometime. I said yes and as kindly as I could, I friendzoned him. I didn't know what to expect and wanted a friend expectation. We met at Copperrock in downtown Appleton and instantly, I thought he was very handsome. He asked how I was and the next question he asked was "How's your faith?" I was so caught off guard by this question. We had a great conversation about our faith and how things were going. We talked for at least two hours and we made plans to see each other on New Years Eve. We continued to make plans and go on unofficial dates throughout the month of January before I went back to Eau Claire for spring semester. We went on our first official date on March 20th.

Although I cannot provide a number on how much I communicated with Karen, one of Grace’s closest friends, nor the date I started planning for the proposal, it started Thanksgiving of 2021 when I told my parents that I wanted to propose to my best friend. I asked Grace’s parents for their blessing on February 10th, 2022. I received the ring shortly after and it started to become real, kinda. It was not until a few weeks before the proposal that the fact that I was proposing to the girl of my dreams hit me, and it hit me hard. Two Wednesdays before, I woke up in the middle of the night sweating profusely, freaking out, thinking that I was supposed to be in Tampa Bay. The week leading up to the proposal was finals week at UW-Oshkosh. I had several exams and a few other papers that were due. Luckily, I had finished the papers two weeks prior preparing for the proposal because I knew that one thing and one thing only would be on my mind the week of. Boy, I was smart because I put in zero hours of studying. I continuously double and triple-checked to make sure that I had plane tickets to Tampa and made sure that I had a hotel booked. Thursday came around. I packed and decided that I would wear my baby blue Aaron Judge button-down with navy shorts, socks with rosaries on them, and my Oreo V2 Yeezys. Friday morning came. I woke up from a great night of sleep and I drove down to Madison. I tricked Grace into thinking I was spending the whole weekend with my brother, Kaiser in Madison. Grace called me for our goodnight phone call and I went to sleep. I surprised myself by sleeping fairly well given the circumstances of anxiety, couch, and street noise. Day of the Proposal: I woke up at 4:03 am excited and nervous about the day ahead of me. I got ready and drove to the Chicago airport. During the drive to Chicago, I felt wide awake and was thinking up all different scenarios of how the remainder of the day would play out. I spent most of the drive asking The Lord to give me the gifts of courage and for Mary to keep me safe along my journey. I finally arrived at the parking ramp and caught the bus shuttle to O’Hare International. I've never flown by myself and fortunately, it was not difficult at all to find where I needed to go, and security was only a fifteen-minute process. I found my gate and started my 2-hour wait until takeoff. At Tampa International, I nervously wandered around to find where an Uber could pick me up while texting with Karen about where I should have the Uber take me. I ended up finding a place that looked like a huge tourist attraction that was called “John’s Pass Village & Boardwalk” and ordered an Uber to drive me there. As soon as I got into the car, I noticed that the Uber Driver named John, had a rosary hanging off his rearview mirror and so I struck up a conversation with him. On arrival, I looked at my phone and noticed that Karen tried to contact me multiple times. I looked at her phone’s location to see where she and Grace were, and to my surprise, they were eating at a restaurant a block east of me. So, I quickly turned in the other direction. Karen snuck away so she could call me, and we decided on a plan: I would pick up flowers and wait at a location on the beach, then Karen would bring Grace and I could do my thing. After the call with Karen, I started looking up places for flowers and Karen gave me a few suggestions. Unfortunately, these places were not open so I found a local grocery store, Publix. I had a brief panic attack when I did not see the floral section, but I found the floral section and picked out a dozen red roses. By that time, Karen and Grace were walking along the beach and I headed over to the spot, I waited and continued to check their location. Finally, I saw Karen and Grace appear and I proceeded to walk toward them. Grace’s first words were, “What are you doing here?” I told her how much she means to me and got on one knee and asked her if she would marry me.

My friend, Karen and I went on a three-week road trip down the east coast starting in Niagara Falls and ending in Tampa, Florida. While in Charleston, North Carolina, there were lots of cute summer dress shops so we decided that it would be fun to shop and buy new summer dresses. In the first store, both Karen and I found a few dresses that we liked so we tried them on. One of the dresses I tried on was a white dress with cute puffed sleeves. The dress was comfortable and fit perfectly. I showed Karen and I was definitely thinking to myself that this would be such a cute dress someday for an engagement party or bridal shower, etc. Karen encouraged me to get it and I sent Carsten a picture of the dress who also encouraged me to get it. Little did I know that after sending a picture of the dress to Carsten, he reached out to Karen to tell me to get the dress. This is where Karen started the idea that we should wait to wear our dresses in Tampa and it will be so fun. I didn't think much of this at the time. Fast forward a few days, it's the last full day of our vacation in Treasure Island, Florida. At this point, Karen has probably mentioned how we're going to wear our dresses in Florida several times and I remember thinking to myself, 'wow, Karen is really excited about wearing dresses in Florida.' So we wore our new dresses and spent the morning walking along the beach, exploring the boardwalk, and eating at a restaurant that overlooked the water. We started walking back along the beach and Karen was glued to her phone and told me about something going on in her family's group chat. I would find out later that she was actually texting and sharing locations with Carsten so that he could propose. Karen suggested that we take some selfies with my phone. Throughout our entire trip, we have taken selfies on her phone but I go with it and take the pictures on my phone. I later discover that this was her way of stalling and this was so that I wouldn't see Carsten's texts. We start walking towards our Airbnb and there's a long stretch of beach between the Gulf of Mexico and the buildings. About halfway to the buildings, I noticed a guy walking toward Karen and I. He wore a light blue shirt and it looked like he was carrying a red lawn chair. It felt like this stranger was walking right at us. I thought to myself, 'Maybe he needs directions or something'. I turned to Karen and I was about to ask her if she noticed this guy walking toward us too but then as we got a little closer, I realized it was not a stranger at all. It was Carsten. I felt my heart and mind race. I was completely shocked and so excited to see him. We hugged, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I said YES! He then put the most beautiful ring on my finger.