Pat and Devin met as they both began a new journey through graduate school at Clemson University. Although from many different places we had grown up about 45 minutes from each other our whole lives. This became a comforting point as the both of us had just moved over 12 hours away from our homes. As the semester went on we had spent 3 12 hour drives back and forth from our hometowns together in the car. After well over 36 hours driving back and forth, and getting to know more and more about each other we became inseparable.

On February 1, 2020 Devin had flown down to New Orleans, where Pat had been living for some time for work. On her weekend off she would hop on the next flight out and be there within 5 hours. That weekend Pat had planned a brunch in the city followed by a walk around City Park. As the two had spent time apart typically while Devin drank her morning coffee and got ready for the day, Pat would sit in the room and we would just chat all morning. This morning Pat had spent in the living room with our dog, Sonny, I had thought nothing of it until we were about to leave. As brunch had gone on and we had talked about taking the walk around City Park, he asked that I change my shoes into something more comfortable for a longer walk. After changing we spent a good hour walking around the park. We had passed a LOVE statue, a beautiful waterfall, and two historical "dueling" trees, three times.. I began to think something was up when he was fidgeting in his jacket. Pat proposed by the water after realizing the trees were too crowded of a place for him to get down on one knee. We spent day the celebrating by calling our family and friends and heading home to our pup, and the start of our new life together.