We met our first semester at BYUI in January, 2020. After a few weeks of going on dates, we decided it was best to take a break and see other people, but around the end of July Maddie messaged me out of nowhere and asked what I was doing. Luckily enough, I was just leaving my apartment to go hangout with some friends and I invited Maddie to join me. We hung out together that night for the first time in nearly seven months. I honestly thought I'd never see Maddie again. From that point on Maddie and I became very close friends. We went on hikes together, hung out with friends and one on one, etc. It came to a point where we had developed feelings for each other, but neither of us had the courage to say anything about it. I didn't think we would ever be anything again, so I forced myself to get over my feelings for Maddie and moved on. Four months later in mid-November, after not talking for a month or two, Maddie had finally developed enough courage to tell me how she really felt about me- while I was in a committed relationship with somebody else. Now I won't speak for Maddie, but my assumptions are that Maddie came to her senses about her feelings for me after seeing me in a relationship with someone else, and she realized she might have missed her chance at a relationship with me. Maddie and I both went home for the holidays. While I was away, my girlfriend at the time and I broke up, and shortly after Maddie and I began to talk again. We talked every day for almost two months until we both got back to Idaho in early January 2021. It was only a few days later that we made things official and started dating seriously. The rest is just eventual buildup until we started discussing marriage. Although the idea of marriage equally scared us both, we felt like it was the right decision for us. I couldn't be more excited to spend my life and beyond with Maddie. -Dane