welcome!

Laura and Malachi had so much in common - both freshman at Georgia Tech, in Navy ROTC, Catholic, a love for pizza, from the tri-state area, and in engineering majors to name a few. But as surprising at it is, they didn't know each other for most of fall semester. She lived on west campus and he lived on east. She was getting to know people in ROTC and a service sorority and he was pledging a Greek fraternity. Their lives were on two different trajectories until the last few weeks leading up to finals. Much earlier than expected, Laura was struggling in keeping her grade where she wanted it in a class - linear algebra. Maybe it was the matrix math or being in a new environment or her professor who was known as the last of "The Four Horsemen" of the Math Department at Georgia Tech. Whatever it was she did not understand linear algebra and turned to her ROTC classmates for help. Some friends offered to help - one of which was Malachi. She didn't know much about Malachi other than the correct pronunciation of his name and she remembered seeing him at mass one morning at the Catholic Center. They met at the Catholic Center and while he did help her out, they also created a new friendship.

Fast forward through spring semester where Laura and Mal went to mass together almost every Sunday, got breakfast at North Ave dining hall after, and then spent Sunday doing all the homework they neglected on Saturday. Laura, Mal, and a number of other ROTC friends were sent to San Diego, CA for their summer training. It turned out that they had plenty of free time in the afternoons and weekends to explore with new and old friends. They tried lots of food, and went to the beach where Laura tried to learn how to surf and Mal jumped off a cliff. They also went on their first date to Sea World (free to military!) to celebrate Mal's birthday. After a month of what their friends told them were dates, Mal finally asked Laura if she wanted to be his girlfriend the night before they were leaving San Diego. To be precise the words used were "Do you want to be my girfriend? There's an opening for the position if you'd like to put in an application for the board to review." She just laughed.

During the four months that Laura and Mal were in the same time zone after two years of being on opposite coasts, they made it a goal to visit each other every month. Mal went down to Charleston to visit Laura during a long Veteran's Day Weekend. After a slight scare Wednesday night due to a canceled flight, he made it in Thursday afternoon. Friday morning Mal explored while Laura was at work taking a thermodynamics exam at Nuclear Power School. Saturday started off great when Laura got her exam grade and it was her highest in Power School thus far! Little did she know that Mal had another surprise planned later that day. After getting brunch and hanging out with some of Laura's friends at a rugby game, they headed off to Magnolia Plantation and Gardens. After walking around the gardens they looked for a nice photo spot and found a cute gazebo where two women were happy to take a photo for them. As Laura walked up to the gazebo Mal gave a quick flash of the ring to the women before following after her. When she turned around Mal was there, guiding her into the gazebo, and before she knew it down on one knee. Don't ask her what he said though - all she can remember are the words "Holy Matrimony" and crying.