We met at the University of Cincinnati: College-Conservatory of Music. I was in Technical Direction, he was in Scenic Design. During the first Load-In of the year we were both put on the Automation Team. We had to work together on making a stage lift work. We began talking and realized we both loved the same shows, Doctor Who, Hannibal, etc... We struck up a friendship and after a few months I asked him on a date to go ice skating. When the big day came everything that could go wrong did go wrong. There were downed power lines, the temperature was in the 10s, and all of the restaurants in the city were booked since it was Valentine's Day. Levi cooked me a delicious spaghetti dinner with homemade sauce. I also later learned that he roasted almonds specifically for the salad that he made as well. We went to grab some hot coffee at the Hyde Park Coffee Emporium where we closed the place talking about ghost stories and haunted places. We talked for hours and I knew that we were perfectly matched.

Levi had planned an entire weekend of activities because I knew he would propose that weekend, but didn't know when or where. On the 9th, we went to The Gruff- a burger restaurant in Newport that we went to for our 2 month anniversary. After eating, we decided to walk a block to a local coffee shop we had previously visited on a date. While warming up in the coffee shop at a table overlooking the Ohio River, Levi asked me if we wanted to brave the cold again and go to the Robeling Bridge. In our years together, the bridge held special memories for us as it was often the destination of late night drives where we discussed our lives together, both in the moment and the future. Knowing that it was the moment we had anticipated for so long, we shared our quiet moment on the bridge where a promise was made to spend the rest of our lives together, through good times and bad, sickness and health. The "through sickness" line was immediately put to the test as I got a cold the next day from being out in the freezing weather, but we both still think it was worth it.