09.03.23

Parker and I met during our first month of medical school at St. George’s University in late August of 2018.. and of all places, the grocery store! While it was a simple meeting for him, it was a much-anticipated and nerve-racking meeting for me. I first noticed Parker in a Zoom meeting during an online summer course for our Grenada program earlier that year. I was instantly attracted! To my disappointment, I never saw him again in any of the other summer meetings. I had nearly forgotten all about him until the night I flew down to the island to start medical school. I ordered a burger at one of the local restaurants on campus and turned around to see him standing right behind me in line. I swear my stomach flipped five times. I ran home to my roommate (of maybe 5 hours), Raiza Singh, and poured out my excitement! She probably thought I was crazy, but my crush on this guy had already started. A few weeks in, Raiza and I stumbled across him again when we took one of the campus group trips to the local grocery store. Nervous as could be, I took my shot at talking to him for the first time. After our conversation, I was intrigued more than ever. I remember wanting to get to know him more and quickly calling all my friends back home to let them know of the cute guy I had just met. For the next few months, I would see him around campus but noticed he already formed another friend group. To my surprise, we had a mutual friend. PJ Schaefer studied in Parker’s friend circle and was also one of my closest friends from small group review sessions and student government. PJ introduced me to Parker’s friend group in December of 2018. (Here’s where the three year friend-zone stretch begins.) Parker and I seemed to hit it off from the start. We had so many crazy things in common that even our friends started to pick up on. We bonded over our love of country music and hatred for pickles, started our own DES study group for underclassmen, and were always making each other laugh. But nothing was ever said. I was scared to death to tell anyone else and ruin a friendship. I could tell he wasn’t ready for a relationship on the island either. Spring of 2020, we got an email from the school that all students must evacuate the island. I thought that was it, I would never see him again. But since Parker, PJ, and I would study together often, Parker came up with the idea to quarantine together in his grandparents' family condo in Branson, Missouri. Parker and I seemed to hit it off more than ever in Missouri. While still in the friend-zone, I could feel there was something more. Parker was placed in Palm Springs, California in the Fall of 2020 while I completed another term and started studying for STEP1 of the medical boards. Parker came to visit me a couple of times in Newport Beach but would mostly FaceTime a couple times a week. As the phone calls seemed to slow down over time, friends told me it was time to finally move on. This time, I was sure that I would never see him again. Come Summer of 2021, Parker reached out and was looking to move apartments and I was looking for a place to start clinical rotations. We ended up moving into the same apartment complex and lived a few doors down from each other! Things seemed to pick up right where they left off in Missouri. On December 17th, 2021 Parker hit me with the ‘Do you want to be a couple?’ And the rest is history!!

I had just moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for residency starting July 2022 and knew I would be proposing to Kim soon. I did not know the area very well, so I started looking for areas I thought Kim would like when I had days off. Over the next few months, I looked at some parks around Wauwatosa and Milwaukee. Nothing really felt quite like ‘us.’ I had stumbled upon the Milwaukee Art Museum and definitely wanted to include a visit there on the day of the proposal, but none of the spots around the museum felt quite right. One of my senior residents mentioned there was a nice park nearby called South Shore Park, so on my next day off I went to check it out. It was perfect! After I had the spot, I found a photographer that would be able to take candid photos of the actual moment along with a post-proposal photoshoot. Kim was planning to visit the first of October, so I had a few weeks left to plan the actual day after I had the spot and the photographer booked. Kim knew she was getting engaged during her visit (this would be the only time we would see each other since I moved until the New Year), but I wanted the proposal to be as much of a surprise as possible. One of my fellow residents agreed to help set up a picnic at South Shore Park while Kim and I enjoyed the art museum. Kim came for her visit. On October 1st, she woke up to the ring box on the counter… her signal to be ready for a proposal at any moment. Little did she know, the ring had not been in its box for the past few days. My co-resident had been keeping it and all the picnic supplies safe with plans to head out and get things ready that morning. As we were heading out to the art museum, I made sure to mention we didn’t need the ring just yet. We finished touring the art museum and I told Kim I had a great spot picked out for lunch, so we headed over to the park. As we walked up, Kim was not quite sure the picnic was for us, until she saw the ring sitting on the little picnic table. I barely had enough time to get the words ‘Will you marry me?’ out of my mouth before she said, ‘Yes, yes, yes, a million times yes!’

Since our engagement, we have received so much love, encouragement, and support from all of our family and friends during this very exciting time. We are so very thankful for everyone that has poured into our lives and cannot wait to celebrate with you all this coming September. As we look back on our friendship, relationship, and engagement, as well as forward to our upcoming marriage, we are especially thankful to our parents for setting the example for what a Godly marriage looks like. Our hope is that we can continue to model such a marriage for the next generation. Thank you all for taking the time to read our story and we can’t wait to party in a few short months!!