It all started during Spring Break 2010. While in 10th grade, I went to Myrtle Beach with friends for Spring Break. Carmen and I went to different high schools, but it was tradition for the baseball teams to go down to Myrtle Beach for a Spring Break Baseball Tournament. Wednesday night my friends and I decided to take a walk on the beach. As we walked, one of our mutual friends came up to me and said this kid 'Carmen' thought I was cute and wanted my number. Carmen then came up to me and asked for my number with his Sony Ericsson phone. Butterflies were definitely fluttering as I was so nervous! The next night, Carmen texted me and asked if I wanted to go for a walk on the beach with him so I obviously said YES. I met him on the beach and as we walked, he showed me pictures of his 2001 Saturn. I thought to myself, "he is so cute and has a car" :)!! That night, as we were sitting on the beach looking at the stars, HE KISSED ME! I was so excited but also nervous as this was my first kiss. That wrapped up the week and it was time to go home. Once I got home, I'm sure my parents were happy to hear that I came home with a crush (thanks to the McClusky's for bringing me on the trip!). A few weeks after we got home, Carmen asked me to go to the movies with him and that night asked me to be his girlfriend outside of the theater and the rest was history. From high school, to college, to moving to Boston, we have been through everything together. 10 years and many memories later, on 12/23/2020, Carmen got down on one knee in front of our families at Lake Ontario, which holds a special place in both of our hearts, and asked me to marry him! Carmen, you are my best friend, the person that I look up to, and someone who I rely upon the most. You are compassionate in everything that you do and I admire that the most about you. I am so excited to spend the rest of our lives together and to see what the future holds for us. I can’t wait to call you my husband! I love you!

Although Lindsey and I lived in the same town and were only separated by one year of age, we had never truly met (that I can recall ... more on that later) until my junior year of high school while I was on spring break for baseball in Myrtle Beach. I still remember seeing the quiet, beautiful girl in a blue sweatshirt with hair so blonde it almost looked white on the beach one evening while hanging out in a mutual group of friends. One of my loud mouth friends told her that I thought she looked cute, which wasn't a lie, but that wasn't quite the ice breaker I had in mind at the time. Although I'll have to admit, it did get us talking and eventually texting and finally romantically walking down the beach late at night looking at the stars where I made my first move. That year spring break was successful not because I hit a home run on the baseball field, but because I met, and kissed my future wife on the beach under the stars. I'm pretty sure Lindsey cried after I kissed her. Fast forward to college, I had left my hometown to attend RIT as a Freshman and Lindsey continued to text me every single day. It didn't take long for me to remember all the reasons I fell in love with her in the first place and we were soon once again dating while attending different schools on the opposite sides of town, this time in Rochester. We had many great memories throughout college at RIT and St. John Fisher, but when I graduated our relationship went through its 2nd long distance test as I moved to Boston while Lindsey was finishing school. Luckily my friend Josh (also in Boston) always had a girlfriend or two still attending RIT with a car to drive Lindsey down to Boston every couple of months. I knew I was going to marry Lindsey before she moved to Boston, before we moved in together and even before we adopted a cat together. I may not have known it in 2004 when we were on the same midget league baseball team, but call that fate.