Celebrate the marriage of

We met at a party at Dr. Elizabeth Agnew's house in Muncie, to celebrate and get to know our classmates for our semester-long Virginia Ball Center project "Muslims in Muncie." This project took us across the state and country, as we learned about Islamic history and practices. The masjid in Muncie felt almost like a second home by the time the semester ended. We were on the film team together, tasked with creating a documentary out of over 40 hours of oral history interviews. We spent long days--and nights--at the beautiful 1920s mansion that had been converted into the Virginia Ball Center on Ball State University's campus. Over this semester, and in our work promoting the film afterward, we became best friends, and slowly fell in love.

On a sunny July afternoon, we decided to take a long, meandering hike across Eagle Creek park in Indianapolis. We picked berries, identified plants, and scrambled up the shore of the reservoir. Once we made it to the water, Benjamin pulled out his tripod and started taking pictures of us, claiming that "we had no photos together." For the final photo, Benjamin set the camera to record a video instead, and leapt over to get down on one knee. Of course, Allison let out an enthusiastic "YES!" We continued our hike, and--sweaty and exhausted and ecstatic--came home to the house we had bought just the day before, to begin moving in.