As cliche as “love at first sight” sounds, that is exactly what happened to me. I first saw Lizy my sophomore year, her freshman, in biology class at Baylor University. It was the first day of the semester, and as I walked out of the classroom, I noticed a cute girl putting away her laptop. She gave me a polite smirk, and from that moment, I have not stopped thinking about her. I ended up meeting her in a study session, but it took another two years for me to work up the courage to have a real conversation with her. I would see her around campus, and every time my heart would beat out of my chest. I met her again at a friend’s house my senior year and luckily we both had the same Organic Chemistry class that semester. I was not about to let the opportunity pass to court her. I waited for her after class every single day, and although it took some time, patience, and many lunch dates, she finally started falling for me too. Two weeks after having the first real conversation with her, I told my roommate I was going to marry her someday. Well, that someday is October 18, 2019, and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with that cute girl from Biology class.

We were coming up on our 6th dating anniversary, and the plan was for me to visit Sean in Austin that weekend to celebrate. We planned to have a casual dinner on Friday, a slow Saturday morning with coffee and a hike, and, as my present, a surprise event on Saturday night. I won't pretend that it didn't cross my mind that if Sean was planning on proposing, this night could be the perfect opportunity. However, I didn't want to get my hopes up *looks up to see if the Backstreet Boys were in town.* Tip: don't underestimate Sean's brilliance, ever. According to him, we had to be ready by 7:30 p.m. for our big event. In fact, there was nothing planned for that night because the real surprise was our "casual" morning hike. We had coffee and made our way to Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve in Austin. I distinctly remember ranting and raving about what a lovely morning we were having - how great the weather was, how beautiful the park was, and how excited I was about discovering more and more of Sean's new city. As we made our way to the park's waterfall, I was distracted trying to get my camera ready for a picture. Sean, facing the waterfall, said, "it's beautiful," as I continued to mess with my camera and reply "mhm yeah!" he followed it up with "almost as beautiful as this ring I'm about to put on your finger." Cue my very unromantic reaction of trying to figure out if he was messing with me. You know, a Jim and Pam situation. Well, he wasn't. Otherwise, it's awkward that I'm planning a wedding and preparing to move all of my stuff into his apartment. See you at the aisle on October 18th.