Junior year of college, I was coaching track and field at the local high school, Tucson High. Our team was setting up the equipment for the beginning of the season and was piecing together the high jump and pole vault pits. We called upon the nearby University of Arizona pole vault coach to come out to help set up the pole vault pit, as it can be complicated. Coach Dominic Johnson arrived, bringing one of his college athletes, Tanner, to help him! Out at the track, Coach Dom tried striking up a conversation between Tanner and I, but I found out Tanner was a bit nervous. I could only get a few words out of him before they finished setting up the pits and headed out. A week later, I'm embarrassed to admit, but even though we had barely talked, I still couldn't get Tanner out of my head. After asking my friends for advice, I decided I had nothing to lose and looked Tanner up on the Arizona Track and Field Instagram. Strangely enough, I found out later that Tanner had also looked me up that exact day, a week later, but couldn't find me as he only knew me as "Coach Nicole". I hit follow that night and went to bed, waking up the next morning with a direct message from Tanner saying "Hey what's up? I can't believe I didn't get your info the other day I totally forgot!" We played tennis for our first date shortly after, and our story began! The next year was spent together in Tucson, filled with many track meets, date parties, and a trip to Colorado before I left for Spain for a semester. Upon my return, there was, of course, more track meets and celebrations as we graduated from the University of Arizona together. After graduation, there has been more long distance through my summer positions at Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain and his job as a teacher, but also lots of adventures together across the country during this time. We are so excited for all that the future will bring as we step into this new phase of our life together!

With Nicole’s coaching season wrapping up, her brother Michael's high school graduation, and preparations for an upcoming Rocky Mountain job, my proposal plans went under the radar. It had become obvious for quite some time that we wanted to spend our lives together and had started planning steps for our future. I didn’t want to wait 5 more months for Nicole's seasonal job to end to put my plan into action, so I recruited the help of both our families to propose to Nicole. I drove to her house one day knowing that she would be at track practice, and nervously asked her parents for their blessing to marry their daughter. After receiving an immediate yes, they jumped at the chance to be involved in the beautiful moment and we got to work building upon my proposal plan! I recruited my brother, Connor, to take the photos and my parents to host an “after party.” The day came up quick! We took a sunset walk, one of Nicole's favorite hobbies, at the beautiful Dreamy Draw Nature Trail in Phoenix. I made sure to play it cool as to avoid suspicion. Besides my mom letting us know on my phone speaker in the car that we should "slow down" as my brother was running late, and me replying very awkwardly, I think I did a pretty good job! I played it off and prayed that Nicole still didn't suspect anything, despite the obvious clue that something was up. Luckily upon arriving at Dreamy Draw, Nicole seemed to shrug it off and assumed that nothing was up after all. However, I was freaking out inside as my brother still hadn’t shown, despite the plan being that he was supposed to be already there. The trail was beautiful, and the sun had just started to drop below the mountains. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Connor full sprinting up the trail near us. I figured the gig was up, but by a miracle of God, Nicole somehow didn't notice a thing. Just in time, as we had reached the spot I had picked out for the proposal. The rest, as they say, is history!