It was my sophomore year of high school and my sister, Amy, tried setting me up with this guy named Mike from Gretna. She brought me over to the Hartnett's house one weekend and we hit things off but at that point in our lives it didn't work out. We hadn't seen each other for about 4 years until one day my sophomore year of college I randomly saw him walking near the library on Creighton's campus. We walked past each other, made eye contact, smiled, and kept walking. Creighton is a fairly small school, so I thought it was strange I hadn't seen him on campus before. Turns out he had transferred to Creighton from Augustana College after his freshman year. I asked one of our mutual friends for his number and then I made the first move. I added him on Snapchat, slid into his DM's, and we started talking to each other almost every day. We kept meeting up at fraternity parties and the BlueJay Bar until finally, he asked me to hangout. On one of our first dates, I tried making mac n cheese in the communal dorm room kitchen, failed miserably, so we drove to Chipotle. I remember the first time I knew I was falling for him was when he was singing/screaming to Lady Gaga like nobody was watching on our way to Chipotle. We kept seeing each other and fell in love fast and hard. Mike asked me to be his girlfriend on March 16, 2014, and we've been together ever since. :)

I first met Kari sophomore year of high school. She was a Skutt gal and I was a Gretna guy. We had been set up to talk to one another and after hanging out, I really started to like this girl. As it was for the best, Kari decided to ghost me – leaving our story quite unfinished. Our story picks up when I make a life-changing decision to hang up the wrestling shoes and transfer from Augustana to Creighton my sophomore year to be closer to home and focus on my education. Kari and I had stayed acquainted on social media so I was aware she also attended Creighton. I saw her on campus for the first time walking on the Mall near the library but was far too bashful to say anything as I doubted she even remembered who I was. Our run-ins picked up when I joined a fraternity and began attending more social gatherings – where I learned quickly that I would need to compete with many suitors for Kari’s honor. At one of my first date parties I attended, I got Kari with some payback for ghosting me in high school when she asked me if I remembered who she was and I said I did not...of course, I was joking. As I stated earlier – social media played a somewhat significant role as we began following each other on Twitter and then Kari boldly liked one of my tweets after getting her wisdom teeth removed. Then over Christmas break, we became friends on Snapchat. From there, our run-ins increased more and more – especially at the BlueJay Bar (RIP) and it was only a matter of time before Kari and I gravitated towards one another and spent more time together.

The morning of February 29, 2020, we had just finished working out and it was a rare, gorgeous 60-degree day in February so we wanted to do something outside. We decided to make plans to go shopping at the outlet mall. Right as we were leaving our apartment, my sister, Sara, texted me asking us to stop by to pick up some pictures. We get to my sister's house and Mike parks far away (I thought it was weird because there was a completely wide open spot in their driveway). I ask Mike if he’s staying in the car or coming with, and he says no I’ll come. Mike was taking forever to get out of the car and I wanted to make this quick so we can go to the outlets so I start booking it to the house. I cross the street and saw a car that looks exactly like my brother's car but just thought “oh maybe the neighbors got a new car”. Mike tells me to slow down and wait up. I heard a bang on my sister's window but thought it was just my nephew Henry and so I try to looking at the windows to see if I can see him. Mike pulls my arm back, takes his sunglasses off, his eyes are red, puffy, and crying. He starts fumbling through his pockets and I finally realized what was happening. All I kept saying was “what, wait what, what, WAIT WHAT?” My sister jumps out of the bush with a camera. I blacked out and don’t remember what mike said but I just start nervously laughing and hug/kiss him. Then there’s this mass exodus of people coming out of my sister's house and people coming out of their cars parked on the street. And that's when I lose it and start crying uncontrollably for like 5 minutes because I was overwhelmed with happiness and excitement. Thank goodness I wasn’t wearing mascara. We had brunch, mimosas, and just kept hanging out all day with friends and family. We were supposed to go to dental prom that night, but I accidentally left my $70 tickets at school in my locker so we decided to just keep celebrating with our friends and family all night.

A little over a year ago, going on six years of dating, Kari and I had decided to go check out potential engagement rings. We were both nervous but it did not take long before the ring Kari wanted to jumped out at her. Kari was certain that since she knew approximately when the ring would arrive that she would be able to sniff out when I was going to pop the question. When it came to asking Jim and Kathy for permission, I was clearly very nervous and not very sly about my intentions. I guess randomly wanting to show your future in-laws your new car you bought spells something else is afoot. Before I completely pitted out my shirt, I asked if I could have Kari’s hand and showed them the ring – Kathy teared up and Jim says, “Mike, do you want Kari’s hand, or do you want the whole thing?” We laughed and of course, I clarified that I did not in fact just want her hand. With Kari insisting that she would know when the proposal was coming, she of course made it a competition by asking me daily if I was proposing that day so of course I just had to surprise her. After much deliberation, and gracious help from Kari’s sister, Sara, we pulled off the best surprise of Kari’s life. It was a Saturday morning and we had just finished our Saturday workout so we decided to go shopping at the outlets. On the way, Sara texted Kari for her to pick something up at her house. Upon arriving at Sara’s, Kari darted out because she assumed that I was annoyed as she already is thinking that shopping is not my favorite Saturday activity. Nervous as heck and fumbling with the box in my pocket, I ran to catch up with Kari, grabbed her arm, dropped on my knee, and asked her to marry me. It was then that Sara jumped out with her camera to capture the moment and both our families and closest friends came lining up out of the house to greet, surprise, and celebrate.