When I was a senior in high school in Storm Lake, I was invited on a college ministry trip to Colorado over New Year's. So on a cold morning at 5 A.M., getting ready to hop in the car was where I first met Isabel. She was in my car on the first half of the trip, and at that time, I didn't fully know it, but she is definitely not a 5 a.m. type of girl. First impression? She was really quiet and had beautiful eyes from the few glances I got. We both were quiet and had little conversation on that trip. However, I knew there was more to this quiet girl than meets the eye. Little did I know that I would discover a lot more about who she was in my first year of college. I didn’t really think much about Kolby after I met him at that winter retreat, besides that he had cool hair. And to be fair, I was in a bad mood on that car ride because I wasn’t excited about the horrible cold in Colorado. During my sophomore year of college, my house (the Coop) hosted Bible study, which Kolby happened to be a part of during his freshman year.

Throughout my first year, we didn't interact much outside of bible study. I enjoyed explaining complex ideas, like car engines or construction, to Isabel, knowing that she would forget the next moment. I realized quickly that most of our interests didn't align and that she loved simple stuff like Pinterest and Starbucks a little too much. Nevertheless, she was fun to be around as it was easy to make her laugh and smile, which I couldn't help but be drawn to. During my sophomore year, we would sit with our other friends in the library, but I found myself giving her more of my attention. Pretty quickly, Isabel would find me whenever I moved and would join me. Soon after, I mentioned that Starbucks had a buy-one-get-one deal on Thursdays. This turned into Kolby enthusiastically joining me to walk to Starbucks and then study at the Memorial Union once a week. We would spend time “doing homework”, which meant we pretty much spent all our time exploring random staircases and rooms in the MU. Soon, these Starbucks and study times started to feel like weekly dates. I was getting decently by the time spring break rolled around, but I was also pretty sure that he liked me. Then came the Florida spring break trip with our college ministry. Which I thought would be the perfect place to be asked out since I love Florida and the beach…

At this point, I wasn’t sure what I was doing. After months of going back and forth on whether I liked her enough to date, I decided to draw it out yet again. So I had the idea of taking her out to coffee on that last day on the beach to gauge her interest level, as I convinced myself that she maybe liked me. It would have been a perfect place to bring up our relationship, but instead, I chose to point out her broken toenail. The next day, coming home, she was in my car yet again. After personally driving 8 hours, I thought it would be a great time to bring up our relationship in the car at 12 am with our friends in the back. With half an hour before our next stop and praying that our friends were asleep, I asked if we could talk later that week. A few days later, after neither of us not eating or sleeping much, she said she would love to date me. Fast forward about 9 months after dating, and I knew the proposal would be coming in the near future. Kolby had previously told me that he wanted to propose “late fall”. On December 7th, I was getting ready to go on a walk around the neighborhood with Kolby, but he randomly had the idea of going to McFarland Park, where we had a special picnic in the summer. Even after my roommate asked me if I was going to dress up and Kolby asked about matching, I still wasn’t suspicious. After Kolby dragged on the walk by pointing out every tree and me noticing something in his coat pocket, I knew what was about to happen, but couldn't believe it. Just around the bend, I saw a beautiful proposal set-up with roses, pillows, and hot chocolate on a hill by the lake during a beautiful red sunset. I was completely shocked. After he said nice things, some I remember and other details that I'm sure were lovely, I managed to say yes.