My first impression of John came during one of my early weeks as a freshman at Lamar University. All of the student athletes had to attend a plagiarism presentation given by a professor from the English department. It was about as interesting and as useful as you could imagine. In the middle of this dull powerpoint lecture, a football player spoke out, "Well, what if I have a friend read it first and then I turn it in?" The professor clearly had no idea who he was matched with. When the professor replied that it would not be considered plagiarism, this just opened up a whole game of hilarious "what if's" the rest of the presentation. This football player, who literally had the room dying of laughter and professor annoyed with the ridiculous hypotheticals, would later become my best friend. The first time I really came up and talked to John was in study hall. I was in an online philosophy class that had online discussions. Online discussions can be so disingenuous. Each discussion post was just a regurgitated summary of the chapter that was read. With everything being basically the same, how do you know if a professor ACTUALLY grades the discussions? Well there was a student in our online class that went by the name "John Craven" who decided to test that theory out. Each week his discussion posts became comedy hour with his philosophy being that dogs understand English and that he does not believe in triple ply toilet paper. These posts were hilarious and each week we all were looking forward to these posts. Then one day in study hall I heard someone yell "Craven!" I immediately had to ask if he was the John Craven in my online philosophy class. Once he said he was, we became friends. Our friendship grew and we became best friends fairly quick. We were strictly best friends for 2-2.5 years before we finally decided to move out the friend zone. Since then, we haven't looked back. I am so lucky I get to marry and continue to laugh with my best friend.

Proposals are as nerve-racking as one could imagine. I am no Romeo or strive to be one but creating a moment with Zoey that was worth retelling for years to come was all I wanted. So, the plan was simple, propose to Zoey in a way that best describes her: sweet, serene and everything in between. First, a photographer. For the nominal fee of $0 and a lifetime of companionship, I hired my buddy Joe. He had just visited a few months prior, so it wouldn't be suspicious that he's back in town. Next was location. When Zoey & I moved to the Twin Cities, the first place we visited was Sculpture Garden. We had fallen in love with the park and soon, visiting Sculpture Garden turned into a monthly ritual. It was our sense of calm amidst the restlessness of life. Lastly, after days of mindless scrolling through Instagram, an ad for a poster with constellations for specific nights had popped up on my feed. It was the perfect complement to a proposal. And thus, the plan was set. We had scheduled a dinner for three. The plan was to eat at Crave, a restaurant Zoey and I had been to before that was near Sculpture Garden. There was a slight setback here, as the wait time was forever because Snoop Dogg’s Entourage was in town with every bachelor & bachelorette party there was well. But the plan was still the same and all systems were a go. Joe and I had telepathically rehearsed the scene while Zoey enjoyed her dinner. As sunset approached, I knew it was time to go. As we began to drive to sculpture park, excitement flooded over me as I was more ready than ever. And this was it, we had arrived at Sculpture Garden. I had Joe take Zoey out to a beautifully lit gazebo and wait for me. I pulled out my framed poster that had the constellation of that night of May 25th, 2019 that read: The night she said Yes. I walked out to Zoey, presented my framed poster as I explained my love for her. As she read it, I knelt down on one knee, and opened my heart up to the love of my life.