#MeettheMcLeods

On the first day of their Honors English course at NSU, Taylor knew Joseph would be in her life. She took her seat in the second row of seats, and started to look around at her new classmates, waiting to talk someone's head off. Not too long after, Joseph walked in. "Hi, I'm Taylor. You're my new friend." Joseph blinked at her, a little taken aback, but instead of looking at her like she was the crazy person she is, he matched her energy! "Hey, okay, I'm Joseph." And he took his seat in front of her. From there, those seats became their unofficial assigned seats, grouping them in all their class group projects, making them inseparable for the semester.

After a year of friendship, three semesters together in various Honors English courses, about two weeks of neither really wanting to admit that they had a crush on the other, and some gentle nudging from our friend Xaria, it became apparent that everyone was waiting on us! It's like everyone knew we were supposed to be together but us! So we leaned into the idea of it and started spending more time together, but feeling more shy about it now that we knew we were interested in each other. Then, one afternoon, Joe met Taylor on campus and suggested they go to the Chrysler Museum, since it's Taylor's favorite art museum to go to in Norfolk. They moseyed on over to the Tide station and took the train to the Museum, walking around for a bit before getting back on the train to go to Macarthur Mall for a bite to eat in the food court, hibachi from Sakura Japan. Taylor could feel that Joe had something he was pondering about, but elected to keep quiet until he felt comfortable speaking up about it. After they finished their food, they walked the mall some before he stopped them to sit at a bench in a less crowded area of the mall. We sat quietly for a moment, before Joseph opened his mouth. "Taylor, will you be my girlfriend?" Well, we all see what the answer to that was!

The day started off a bit hectic! Under the impression that she was in for a night out with her girlfriends, Taylor felt ill-prepared already. "What should I wear?" "How should I style my hair?" "What makeup look should I go for?" These questions raced through her mind over and over again to the point where it felt overwhelming. After watching her struggle to figure out what she wanted to do with herself, and ultimately giving up, wanting to cancel, Joseph told her to put her shoes on, got dressed himself, and they headed to get a new outfit she'd feel good in. And off they went, picking something out quickly since they only had a few hours until Taylor's "girl's night out" and she still had to finish curling her locs. As she got ready, Joseph assured her over and over again that she looked beautiful. It's kind of hard not to smile while being told how wonderful you are, right? He had offered to drop her off and pick her up for the night so that she'd have a safe, secured way home. At first, Taylor wanted to decline, since she knew Joseph had to be up for work at 3 am the next morning, but he insisted, so she let him do his thing. When the time came to leave out for the girl's night, they made the drive up to DC to drop Taylor off at the Wharf for a night of karaoke with her friends. Now, unknown to her, they were all in on it. Joseph created a group chat with them weeks ahead to coordinate with them to make sure everything would go right. The moment that Taylor should've known something was amiss was the fact that her chronically late friend made it to the bar before she had! Joseph left Taylor his card and told her to have fun with her friends, and she did. Now, it was time for Joseph to to their friend's house that lived in DC, or that's what Taylor thought. Instead, he drove back down to Manassas in awful traffic, that Taylor commented on as they drove to DC, saying she was glad they'd be able to miss it. That doesn't count as a jinx, right? Once he got back to Manassas, he put on his suit, grabbed her flowers, grabbed her ring box, and got ready to make the drive back up to DC. Back at the Karaoke bar, the girls were having a blast drinking and singing at the top of their lungs. Funnily enough, when Joe arrived, Taylor didn't see him come in. She was too busy rapping Roscoe Dash's verse in "No Hands" by Waka Flocka Flame. The song started to fade out towards the end, so she assumed the bar was kicking her off the mic to go to the next singer. Then, Best Part by H.E.R. began to play. This became their song early on into their relationship, when both were too shy to admit it was love they felt for each other, and not just a college fling. She turned to put the microphone back on the stand, when she felt a hand on the small of her back. She turned, and it was Joseph standing there, dressed in his suit and holding a microphone in hand. Excitement, then shock, then confusion all washed over her in the span of a couple of seconds as he led her back to the front for them to sing the song together. As they sang, a slideshow flipped through different photos of the throughout the years they had been together, lights strobed, and a smoke machine filled the dance floor at their ankles. As the instrumental continued, Joseph leaned into his mic and began to speak: "You know, after these last 6 years together, I can't imagine where I would be without you babe. I thank God for allowing me to find you, my true love. So I just want to say I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Taylor Parsons, will you marry me?" He got on one knee and opened the ring box, the exact ring she described to him a year prior. He had gotten it custom-made for her. She couldn't even get any words out, just nods and happy tears as she embraced him, her new fiancé, her friends screaming in the background happily for her.