To most Redbirds, The Lodge on Willow brought many great things. Pool parties, late nights and a whole heap of stupidity. But hey... where else do all great stories start. All jokes aside, Katie and I moved into apartments two doors down from eachother in the fall of 2015 and over the course of the next couple years our group of friends became extremely close. Though this isn't exactly where the love story begins... in our eyes all great relationships have a strong friendship at their core and these years were vital in what we have today. Additionally, it's important to note that you may need to fall on your face (literally, Katie) once or twice to truly find your way in life. Little did I know that the massive scrape on her face in 2016 was from trying to chase me through the parking lot the night before... After college, Katie and I both went our separate ways. Katie moved down to St. Louis in pursuit of a nursing career and I moved back home and eventually up to Crystal Lake. It's funny to look back and think about how drastically far away we were from one another and how neither of us would've had any idea we'd be where we are today. That all changed with a goofy late night snapchat of our friend, Joe Hlavacek, back in the summer of 2019. If you don't know Joe, he's probably one of the most fantastic humans on the planet and can bring people together without even knowing it. I, of course, had to let Katie know how funny I thought the video was and we continued sharing messages of laughter back and forth for the rest of the night. From that moment on, Katie put her foot on the gas and there wasn't a chance in the slightest I could ever consider trying to get her to let off. This gorgeous girl, who I once just considered a friendly neighbor, quickly transitioned into so much more than that. Though may have taken a while for me to eat my pride and admit she was actually my "girlfriend", I can tell you that from the first date I knew I was going to make her my wife. Though these are just the cliff notes of our story I think it's important to conclude with one thing in particular- Yes, Katie is the love of my life as I am hers. But more than anything we are each other's best friends and couldn't be more excited to watch our future unfold together.