Tom and I went out for our first date at a restaurant called "3" in Franklin, MA. I parked awkwardly far away from the door in the massive parking lot, a classic Rachel move. At dinner, we both clicked and the conversation just flowed. By the end of the night, we weren't ready to say goodbye so we went back to his apartment and played video games all night long. I remember being pretty good, but Tom swears that he just let me win. After that date, we both knew that it was far from the last time we would see each other.

On one of our big adventures, we went to many different states and amazing, scenic places. The entire trip, I was waiting for him to ask, hoping it would be at this location or that location. Towards the end of the trip, I thought the opportunity had passed and that Tom wasn't going to ask. On one of the last days of our trip, we went to the Grand Canyon. Tom looked amazing in his best outfit, I was looking like a hot mess and could not find something to wear that looked good. I ended up in one of Tom's shirts, pants that did not match, and was a grump. We went to the lookout spots which were swamped with people, I wasn't expecting anything. Tom saw a ledge that we could climb down onto where nobody else was and it overlooked the entire Grand Canyon. We climbed down and Tom set up his bag and phone on video mode, telling me he would screenshot the pictures from the video. Good idea, why didn't I think of that! After posing, I went to go stop the video and Tom pulled me back and began his speech. I was so focused on not falling off the edge of the world that I couldn't even fully process what had just happened! We climbed back up to the top, where I was able to process the event and look at my ring up close, talking about it loudly as Tom nervously tried to keep it quite so that we wouldn't get robbed (sorry Tom I am a bit oblivious at times). That was the easiest yes I have ever said in my life!