It all started in August, 2013 when I first moved into South Hall Dorms at The University of Akron. I decided to go with a random roommate & basically start fresh with making new friends. We had a "meet and greet" get together in the study room, & that is where I first saw Rich. I thought to myself, "wow what a good looking guy" & nothing else from that because I never imagined meeting someone in college (and that is where I was so wrong). I was fairly shy, so you didn’t see me making any moves. Rich was always the one to approach first as he was so easy to talk too. As time went by I noticed he was around me a lot. Like, almost everyday! I then found myself asking what he was doing for his day or what party he would be going to for the night, so I could tag along too ;). Right about now is when realized I was starting to really like this guy but I wasn’t ready to tell him that. We started to hangout more often since we were gaining mutual friends. We were all hanging out in my friends dorm room, and Rich comes in to join our conversation. He then proceeds to describe his ideal girl, while locking direct eye contact with me. As he was going on about personality traits & looks that he wanted in a girl, it was all too familiar because he just described me to a T! I remember thinking to myself someone that fun and outgoing would never like me like me, & that is when I finally believed he actually had feelings for me. I remeber telling my best friend, Anna, about this guy. First time she met him, she was all about it! Even made us take a picture together when we were clearly super awkard & goes “you might date one day and you can look back at this!” I’m so happy she captured that moment. Our first picture always makes me laugh & shows how much we have grown. Since then, we have made so many memories and gained many friends who helped us start our relationship together. I would not trade a thing and I am so happy my school brought me my Soul Mate. GO ZIPS BABY!

Freshman year of college is a difficult time in every university student's life; there are thousands of new faces and entirely foreign social challenges. For me, I showed up knowing approximately zero people at the university. After a few weeks, my conscious effort of pushing myself socially began to pay off; I began making friends in my dorm and acquaintances all across campus. I am very grateful to still have many of those people play huge roles in my life to this day. However, one acquaintance stands out amongst the rest. The girl who lived a few doors down from me who I seemed to annoy the hell out of. She was quiet but witty, intelligent but open-minded, classy but always willing to have a great time, and beautiful but NOT interested in me at all. Luckily for me, we had some mutual friends and I would soon have the chance to formally introduce myself at a dorm party a couple months into Fall Semester. In my finest backpack and lanyard, I approached her and oh-so subtly opened with, "I am going to convince you to marry me one day." Wow, very smooth; thank god Clay and Tom convinced me the Four Loko would help calm my nerves. The look of pure confusion on Paige's face was priceless; Anna, however, loved it. Following my apology the next morning, Paige and I became friends. And by "friends', I mean I invited myself to study with her every time I saw her in the common room alone trying to focus. She thought I was obnoxious and I thought she was incredible. After a year of me asking her out, she eventually said yes. After six more years, I finally followed through on my promise that one day she would be my wife. That day is finally approaching and now I will make a new set of promises: to have and to hold, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part. I cannot wait until the day that we both say, "I do".