The nerves were high; the first day of high school does that to you. Brendan was sitting in the band room watching his new classmates enter. He'll never forget the first time he saw Kylie. Looking back, it was one of those cinematic moments where time slows as the girl walks in with a radiant shine. We first met in the Oshkosh West Band room where we both played percussion. Every year for Solo and Ensemble, we played in a percussion group together. While other percussionists fought over the drum parts, we both gladly took the marimba parts. Kylie found out much later that Brendan's Grandma Carol kept asking "When are those two going to get together?" at every band concert. We continued to stay in each other's orbits through high school, including when we both took anatomy and physiology during our senior year. It was during the cat dissection in this class that Kylie found out she is most likely allergic to formaldehyde as her eyes got red and puffy, and she had to wear goggles every day for the duration of the semester-long class. This created an opportunity for shared laughter (at Kylie's expense) when she was left with goggle lines on her face for the next few hours.

After high school, Brendan went to St. Norbert College in De Pere and Kylie went to UW-Madison. While they saw each other every day in high school, they only texted once during their freshmen year – when Kylie reached out to ask Brendan about his CNA (certified nursing assistant) experience. That summer after freshman year, with some liquid courage (and bridesmaid Abbey taking Kylie’s phone to send the first text), Kylie reached out to Brendan again, and we quickly couldn't stop talking. We spent our first date kayaking up and down Asylum Point, trading stories about college (her big city life and his small college town couldn't have contrasted more), our families, our friends, and what we wanted to do with life. That summer went fast, there wasn't enough time to spend together, but he finally asked her to date him and she said yes (over a "Culver's Twinkie" -- ask Kylie about that some time).

Summer unfortunately had to end, which meant we returned to our separate campuses. We both were consumed by school work during the week, and often traveled to visit each other over weekends. Brendan – along with his roommate, Jon Fuller – made countless trips to Madison to visit Kylie and Jon’s partner, Faith. (Jon, I'm sorry for the incessant Hamilton, it was just a straight vibe). Over the next four years, Kylie and Brendan dated long distance, with the exception of a month-long stint at the beginning of the pandemic where they lived in the same house with Kylie’s parents. PSA: Couples are not meant to live with their parents, especially after only dating for 7 months. Common college dates included Kylie dragging Brendan along to any and every Badger sporting event, Brendan showing off his newfound cooking skills (ask him about his scallops and pelmeni), Kylie showing Brendan her version of "cooking" (exploring the cuisine around Madison -- where Brendan originally got the idea for pelmeni), and spending time in the great outdoors (camping, hiking, hammocking, and getting stung by bees). Through the rest of college, the first year of medical school for Brendan, and a Master’s program for Kylie, we stayed close and were there for each other even though we were in two very different worlds.

After undergrad, we met Tiki (our lovable, fluffy, sassy orange fella) while on a trip to Michigan to see Ky's family. It was clear that Kylie would be adopting him and taking him back to Wisconsin. At the start of medical school, Brendan visited the humane society with his mom, and quickly fell in love with twin tabbies. Next thing we knew, we had the TripleT's (Tiki, Tito, and Tini). Bonus points if you can figure out what they're named after. Soon thereafter, we moved in together in Menomonee Falls and became a little family (after ~several~ months of drugging, begging, and successfully convincing the TripleTs to like each other). Kylie is so proud that she converted Brendan to be a cat person.

On New Year's Eve, 2024, Kylie and Brendan were having a game night with some friends. They were playing Wavelength, a game where you have to get your partner to guess a specific point on a spectrum of two ends. The two ends were "Most Definitely" and "Not at all" and the point Brendan had to guess was all the way at "Most Definitely." Kylie, yearning for more information on the proposal and hoping it was coming soon (after 6 years of dating), gave the clue: "Brendan proposing in the next three months." Brendan moved the pointer all the way to "Most Definitely," a massive hint that the proposal was coming by the end of March 2025. Kylie, in her competitive nature, didn't know if she was more happy that the proposal was coming so soon or that they just scored the maximum points in the game for being on the "same wavelength." Fast forward to March of 2025 when Kylie and Brendan were going on a spring break trip with family. While in the airport, Brendan became quite anxious when the gate staff announced that multiple carry on bags would need to be checked at the gate because of limited space. As Brendan began to bounce nervously, Kylie asked why he was being so weird. He quickly retorted, "Well you already know what's in my bag, it's the ring." Brendan's clearly not very good at keeping secrets... Kylie knew the proposal was coming on the trip, but she didn't know exactly what moment. The second night in Texas, Brendan went out to the beach to go "crabbing" well after Ky and her family went to bed. He wrote the question in the sand, anticipating a sunrise walk on the beach with Kylie as they had done the last couple mornings. The next morning, Kylie walked right by the message without batting an eye. They walked down the beach for a couple hours and decided to turn around. On the way back, Brendan kept questioning where the condo was. Kylie kept reassuring him it was still further down. When they got to the condo, Brendan's nerves were once again high. Kylie, oblivious to the situation, walked right past the message in the sand for the second time. At this point, Brendan blurted out, "Well aren't you going to look?!" Kylie looked high and low, left and right, very confused as to what she was supposed to be looking at on an empty beach. She looked to the bushes, expecting her dad to jump out. That's when she saw the message in the sand: "Ky, Marry Me⸮" (Yes, the question mark was backwards). Brendan got down on one knee and no one can remember exactly what he said, but she said yes. What they can both remember next is an older couple shouting and cheering from their balcony of the condo.