Nicholas and I met in the DECA program at Theodore Roosevelt High School, and I had kept my eyes on him for quite a while. After a few weeks of my attempts to flirt going completely unnoticed, maybe even just flat-out ignored, I decided that I refused to let him slip away without going on at least one date with me. We had been texting a little back and forth, and I finally replied with a text saying, "Come pick me up, you're taking me to Chick-Fil-A." If you had to picture an awkward date in your head, this was it. There was barely any talking- just me trying to make him laugh. We shared some laughs and some interesting yet short-lived conversations, and then returned home that night just to continue texting back and forth. The days continued and we began to text more frequently, and I continued to weasel my way into his life. On March 1st of 2016, I was in the car with my mother, and I said to her, " I wish he would just ask me to be his girlfriend already." Within seconds that text came, and 6 years later, here we are.

For our most important night yet, I decided to take us to one of our favorite date spots, the Columbus Zoo. It was just a few days before Christmas, and the holiday light display was in full swing. I had asked Chad, our best friend, to capture the moment and to be there with us on our most special day yet. My heart was in my throat the entire evening, and I was checking Chad's location all throughout the night so that I knew exactly when to ask Paige. I met with him as Paige ran off to the restroom, and the moment was there. I had Paige sit down on a bench with me, and told her to look up at the lights. While sitting there together, I finally got down on one knee and asked Paige to marry me. Her reaction was of course, "Are you sure?", and I reassured her that I was more than sure that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.