Lauren and I met on the dating app Hinge, the app that's "Designed to be deleted". After our first date revolved around not one but two local breweries, pizza, college football, and an impromptu "throw in" competition in a parking lot, I knew immediately that I'd be deleting my app. By adopting Penn State and the Baltimore Ravens as my football teams, beginning to recognize the worth of trash TV shows, and learning to speak "Lauren", she deleted her app too! Since then, our life has continued to include breweries (we've been to one hundred different ones together!), Penn State football, and spending time with our family and friends. Our journey took a giant leap forward during the COVID-19 pandemic when we moved in together and rescued a tuxedo cat named Hank. Although I've been designated as the condo's chef and have had to change my standards of what "tidy" means, we haven't looked back for a second.

Matt and I had made plans to explore wild and wonderful West Virginia with his twin brother, Brian and sister-in-law Lindsay. Our day was set to explore the town of Harpers Ferry and the views from the stunning Harpers Ferry Brewery. Since one of my favorite things to do is go for a hike I convinced Matt that before we ate all the nachos at the brewery we needed to get in some exercise and hike the Maryland Heights Trail, which overlooks Harpers Ferry. Begrudgingly, or so I thought, Matt agreed. After an exhausting hike up, we stopped a little before the summit so I could tie my shoe. Other hikers passed and I asked "are we close to the top?" to which they responded "yes and you just missed a proposal!" I mentioned to Matt how cute that must have been, and was sad to have missed it! A little later, we were at the summit and went to another gathering of rocks to stay away from the crowd. As we sat to eat our snack Matt got in front of me, and said "I know you think this hike was your idea but I've had this planned for a long time". Little did I know, he KNEW I'd ask to go hiking and and incorporated that into the proposal! I said YES and turned around to see our friends Jenn and Rory filming the entire proposal! It was beautiful! After we hiked down from the mountain we met up with Matt's brother and sister-in-law at the brewery. We then headed to the "hotel" but it turned out to be ANOTHER surprise! One that involved our close friends in a social-distanced gathering at a cabin near Harpers Ferry. They had come from near and far to celebrate! I couldn't have asked for a better surprise, and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with Matt.