Jarod and I met in high school in photography class. We became good friends right away and had been partners and seat buddies that semester. After that semester we started hanging out outside of school too, between supporting me at sports or our ice cream dates. Throughout high school we had become close and I had swore him to the friendzone. He was my shopping buddy and the person I would come to for comfort, always there when I had needed him like the great guy he is. This continued into my freshman year of college when we would travel back and forth to get to see each other and message back and forth often. During this time I had still seen him as my best friend but I had started noticing the last few times spending time together that things were starting to feel a little different. The times we were spending together were times that I cherished the most and looked forward to. At the end of my freshman year, Jarod had invited me to a Lonestar concert. I wasn’t completely sure of being able to go but I’m glad I did. That concert had really opened my eyes to my feelings for him. It took a few more dates but we could both tell there was feelings between us and it came so naturally as he was my best friend.

Jarod and I had traveled out to Colorado to spend a week with Jarod's brother James and his son's. We had spent a beautiful week traveling through South Dakota and Colorado. The last day of our vacation we were going to the Royal Gorge Bridge. This was the one day that I really didn't have any suspiscions that Jarod would propose. It was a super windy but beautiful day. What we didn’t know is that due to the wind the bridge was swaying and part of the park would be shut down. So that would mean we would be walking both ways on the bridge instead of riding the cable car back. With us walking across the boys were starting to not feel the greatest due to the motion. I was primarily focused on them and I’d assumed Jarod probably was too. I had said I wanted a picture in the middle of the bridge, so when we had gotten across we had taken a few pictures on the one side and had to cross back. We were going to stop at the middle on the way over but the boys just wanted to get across. So on the way back we had stopped. I had my camera so I could take a nice picture for James and he could take a quick picture of us and keep moving. When I was talking the pictures I had started to not feel the greatest myself and just wanted to get off the bridge. So after I took the boy’s pictures, Jarod and I had turned quick to get a picture for ourselves, we took the picture quick and I was ready to walk away but before I could Jarod was down on a knee. Everything was a complete blur but I of course said yes. The easiest yes I could have ever said.