We're Getting Married!

We first met back in the fall of 2013 as freshmen at Patrick Henry College. Although neither of us remember any substantive interactions with each other, I suppose you could call that the beginning. However, after that year, Manus went back to California and Julianne continued her time at PHC. It was over two years before they saw each other again, and they'd all but forgotten each other in the meantime. When Manus returned to PHC for his sophomore year, Julianne was a senior. By virtue of many mutual friends, they became aware of each other's existence and, by the end of the school year, they had developed a casual friendship. An overly active group chat kept them somewhat in contact over the summer, and, in August, Julianne began her job as the Resident Director at PHC while Manus started his first year as a resident assistant. It was that August that Manus knew he was interested in Julianne, but the two wouldn't start dating for another seven months. Finally, and we do mean *finally*, on March 8th, 2018 Manus took Julianne to a Thai place she'd repeatedly mentioned and so began their adventure.

It was 26 degrees. Julianne had told Manus no fewer than twenty times in recent months that he could not pull off a surprise proposal. Yet, as they drove west on route 7, Julianne had every confidence that they were meeting up with a friend for coffee. The two planned to stop and pray on the way, so when Manus turned down a backroad, Julianne thought nothing of it. When Manus parked near one of their favorite sunset spots, Julianne saw nothing out of the ordinary. When Manus insisted that they get out of the car to admire the Shenandoah view, Julianne assumed that he wanted to see the last hints of the sunrise over the valley. As the two waded through the tall grass towards to viewpoint, Julianne was none the wiser. Manus turned right and as Julianne moved to follow, her gaze hit a small, open patch in the field, a circle of roses and handwritten notes. Frozen and speechless, Julianne slowly realized what was happening and the fact that Manus had proven her completely wrong and surprised her with the perfect moment.