Back in college at UC Santa Cruz I was a Resident Assistant at Porter College. As an RA, we were required to work X amount of shifts at the housing office - assisting residents who got locked out, helping the front office with appointments, etc. I was working a shift one day and Robb happened to come in (in his baseball uniform, omg!) because his apartment had their locks changed and he needed a replacement key. I was COMPLETELY caught off guard by the baseball uniform and long, curly hair that I nervously handed him a key and he was on his way. After he was gone, I realized I may have given him the wrong key, oops. I spent the rest of my shift wondering if it was the wrong key and whether he'd come back - he didn't. Later that day I saw Robb on the bus (what are the chances?!) and I went up to him and let him know that I may have given him the wrong key. He said he hadn't been back to his apartment to check, but he'd meet me at the housing office to have it changed if need be. He never came - WAH. Guess I gave him the correct key after all. I seriously could not stop thinking about him and I couldn't figure out a way to allow our paths to cross again (without being totally creepy, since I knew where he lived haha), so I decided to turn to our UCSC confessions facebook page, LOL. I wrote (and I have a screenshot of this post still) "UCSC Baseball player who lives in the Porter apartments, you're hot! Are you single?" shortly after Robb's teammate tagged Robb and said "he's single and ready to mingle!" and the rest was history. We met because of a key and i'll be forever grateful.

I had lost my key to my apartment and had to get a new one from the Porter housing office. That's where I met Jaclyn for the first time but quickly left afterwards as I had just returned from baseball practice. Later I was alerted by a teammate that someone had posted something about me on the UCSC confessions page. Eventually we got each others information and I ended up asking her to hang out. From there we went on a real date to Betty's Burgers and to everywhere else in Santa Cruz!

Initially, Robb suggested we meet up for the first time at UCSC's swimming pool, which I definitely shot down haha. So we ended up walking around the UCSC track. I'll never forget Robb grabbing my hand as we walked around, overlooking the ocean, sharing our life stories - the spark felt instantaneous and I knew right away that he was something special. We talked for hours about anything and everything, it truly felt like i'd known him forever. It felt comfortable and natural, which I was grateful for. We held hands as we rode in the very last seat of the bus back to Porter College. We ended up hanging out at Robb's apartment - clearly not tired of each other, where we shared our first kiss. Later that night, the fire alarm went off and I had to run back to the dorms for RA duties. It truly felt like a fairytale. Robb and I said we'd hang out again at some point that week, but he texted me the very next day asking if I wanted to have dinner. Clearly, he couldn't stay away from me hehe and I was definitely feeling the same way! We had dinner in downtown Santa Cruz at Betty's Burgers and we spent practically every day together in Santa Cruz thereafter. Robb and I became official on September 20th, 2013 and that was also the day we both said 'I love you'. Our love story is a lot longer than this space will allow. It's now been (almost) 12 years. We've gone through long distance, losses/grief, graduations, finding our careers - truly growing up together and I'm SO grateful to have had Robb by my side.

We went to Betty's Burgers but I also consider our first hang out at the UCSC field as important as our first actual date.

I had been hiding the ring for months preparing for the right moment and trip. Eventually a long trip to Disney World gave me the perfect moment to prepare for popping the question. We had an awesome trip filled with a number of fun memories before I proposed after riding Flight of Passage as the park shutdown. It was a very special and very nerve wracking moment.