05~31~25

Both of us chose to attend New Mexico Tech in 2021, and before we even knew each other we shared a wall in our dorm for a year! Someone (Jordan) started noticing Caleb a bit more towards the end of freshman year, and almost got caught having girl talk about him late at night! (Make sure all windows are closed before girl talk!) We were both in Intervarsity, a Christian club on campus, but never really interacted until late Spring of 2022.

Fall 2022, after a dodgeball game, I was complaining in a group chat that just happened to have Caleb in it, that I was sore and needed to go to the gym sometime. He offered for me to go with him and I later asked if he really wouldn't mind (so yes, I did initiate it all). After going to the gym for a while, we started hanging out more. The day after our Intervarsity fall retreat (where we were basically inseparable) we ended up watching Boba Fett. I really enjoyed it, or maybe it was just because he did, but we ended up making it a thing to watch it before we went to the Swing club on campus. For the next two weeks, we watched Boba Fett and did homework together. Finally on October 7th, 2022, he asked me, and I quote "on our first official date". We do have to thank our friend for that though, as she texted him to shoot his shot earlier that night in the middle of a hide and seek game. (She went through a lot listening to me refusing to accept he did indeed like me back, so thank you.) For the next year and a half we grew much closer, especially after going to Catalina Island for an Intervarsity camp twice. Once summer 2024 came around, I was not excited because I did not want to be away from him. Before school ended we had some serious talks about getting married soon after graduating next year, however, he wasn't planning on proposing anytime soon or so I thought. I will say I was a little persistent about him proposing sooner than I thought he might. The day he proposed, I thought I was only going visit his family to go to California with them. We had planned on watching the sunset and taking a few pictures the night before we left (things we usually do), however, he had different plans. My suspicions rose as the evening went on after he had painted my nails, brushed my hair and said we should take a video so we could screenshot the poses we did (along with the fact that him and my dad took a long hike alone a week before). After a few poses, he handed me a ring pop. Though that seems out of place to any of you reading this, I told him that I would accept his proposal even if he used a ring pop. I did open the bag and to find a blue raspberry ring pop that was in the fruit punch bag, what?! Actually it was a 3D printed ring pop with an actual ring inside (and the actual ring pop in his truck). He did try to surprise me the best he could, and he most definitely did, at least with how soon he did propose.

I'm sure after reading her side you're wondering what took me so long to ask her out, and honestly, I am too. I mean we basically were dating weeks before we made it official, and if it weren't for her friend, who knows how long it would've taken me. In my defense though, I'm not too good at figuring things out unless they involve math or logic, and there's not a whole lot of that when it comes to relationships. She covered a lot of the good dating stories in her side, so I won't make you read about it again, but it was amazing to experience so many cool things with her and to learn and grow alongside her while we were dating. I knew very early on that this was the girl that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, so I started plotting. For her birthday, I decided to get her a few pieces of jewelry, some of which were little rings, and this was so that I would be able to know her ring size without having to ask her later on and be too suspicious, though it was mainly because they looked very pretty on her. She told me she would be very hard to surprise when it came to proposing, and I knew it would, she's basically a detective and can work with even the tiniest of clues, but I took it as a challenge. My plans for the proposal changed many times, but finally after a lot of prayer and things coming together, I knew what I wanted to do. It was very hard not to say anything to her, especially when we were talking about getting engaged just a few nights before I planned on asking her to marry me. I stayed strong though, and when the day came I definitely caused her to be a bit suspicious, but I wanted to be sure I made everything special so some things needed preparation. Even though she obviously did catch on and question some of it, I'm glad I was able to at least surprise her with the timing, and the decoy ring pop. It was also very amazing to be able to introduce her to my family as my fiancé, and I'm so excited to be able to introduce her as my wife here soon!