I remembered Will from OCU but we’d never really met. In 2017 when I came back to OKC to visit, we connected just after the new year started and I was instantly smitten. I was living in Omaha and going to OT school at Creighton. Will was finishing up law school at OU and living in Norman. I had a free weekend coming up in early February and it just so happened that my college sorority was having their annual fundraiser. Perfect excuse to make a trip to OKC to support right? My decision to make the trip had nothing to do with a potential first date with Will. (Hint: it definitely did) So, I hopped on a plane and landed in OKC with a stomach full of butterflies. The next day, February 12 to be exact, Will picked me up and we went for dinner at The Ranch. It was FANCY. To be honest I would’ve been content at a McDonalds, but a girl can’t complain about a good steak and fancy wine. I remember texting my friend Taylor that night saying “if he’s not the one, I’m going to be very surprised.” Having similar backgrounds and similar personalities, we really hit it off. We started off long distance and were still getting to know each other. As I was figuring out which direction my career was going to go something pulled me back to OKC, and boy am I glad it did. Here we are 2+ years later. I survived bar prep and he survived NBCOT prep. We’ve gone on numerous vacations and adventures. AND he won over Lilah. Which if you know her, you know is pretty tough to do.

​Sam and I initially crossed paths during the fall of 2013 when I was a senior and Sam was a junior at Oklahoma City University. I was studying in the library for the last final I needed to take in undergrad, Cost Accounting, when I saw Sam walk by. Once she was out of earshot, one of my study mates remarked, “There’s the kind of girl you should be talking to.” ​I nodded my head in agreement, but lacking any sort of prudent judgment, I finished studying, packed up my books, drove home, and almost certainly turned on my XBOX and played Madden football. ​Having missed this opportunity, I moved to Norman to attend the law school at the University of Oklahoma, and Sam subsequently moved to Omaha, Nebraska to complete a doctoral program at Creighton University. One would have assumed that the opportunity had been lost forever--except that Sam came to Oklahoma City to visit friends in 2017 during winter break. It was mere chance that we ran into each other, and immediately recognized each other from Oklahoma City University. Maybe I gained some sort of enhanced judgment at school—although three years of grades best defined as middling refute this—but this time, I came away with Sam’s phone number. ​We discovered quickly that as only children, we had similar personalities, and our conversations came organically. We ended up meeting up a couple of different times before Sam moved back to Oklahoma City in the summer to complete a year-long internship for her final year of school. I assume that Sam probably really fell for me that summer when I was studying for the bar exam. If being around me during the bar exam didn’t win Sam over, it probably happened after I had a spinal fusion operation on my back that fall, because I remember being in a pleasant and friendly mood all the time.

We both got off work early on April 19, 2019 because it was Good Friday. It was a beautiful day so we decided to do something outside. We planned on driving over to Martin Park, a pretty little nature center in the middle of the city, to walk around. Now, before anyone says how could you not see this coming, we do stuff like this frequently, so it felt like a normal day. I threw on shorts and a tshirt and was ready to go. This is when I should have known something was going on because Will had on jeans and a polo shirt. When I asked he responded with “oh it’s chilly out and I didn’t bring anything else.” So I let it go. We started walking around the park and got to this spot, this very specific spot. Will has a painting on the mantal of Martin Park and I had found that exact spot. As I’m jumping around saying “hey this is the spot in your painting this is the spot in your painting,” he was behind me getting down on one knee. I didn’t believe him at first. I believe my exact words were “no you’re not no you’re not.” It was a sweet moment between just the two of us, and now I have a beautiful painting to remind me of it every single day.

Sam and I met up after work to walk around Martin Nature Park in Oklahoma City, under the guise that it was a nice Friday evening, and if we didn’t spend too long we could grab something for dinner before it got too late. Two things made me fearful this day—first I was nervous that Sam would be suspicious that I was wearing jeans on an unseasonably warm day, and see the outline of the ring in my right pocket. Second, Martin Nature Park is a shaded nature preserve with creeks, ponds and wildlife. As I stood on the first bridge and looked down at the water, I saw some of the largest snapping turtles encountered by man staring back at me. I had visions of nervously proposing to Sam, a sweat-enveloped ring slipping out of my hands, sliding off the bridge, and becoming a turtle hors d’oeuvre. ​The question I had yet to solve was where I would propose to Sam. About a year earlier, we had gone to the Oklahoma City Art Festival, and had purchased an oil print of an iconic bridge overlooking the water at Martin Nature Park. When I was a kid, I had dubbed it “Catfish Bridge”, and I would stand on the bridge and throw food down to the animals in the water. The picture had some sentimental value to me. ​As we were walking up to Catfish Bridge, Sam remarked, “Isn’t this the view from your painting in your house?” When Sam turned around, I felt this sense of confidence and clarity, and when she turned back, I was kneeling and holding out the ring, having miraculously not ejected it off the side of the bridge trying to get it out of my pocket. ​And I can promise you that picture of Catfish Bridge has a lot more than a little sentimental value to me now. That picture is going to be the centerpiece of OUR living room! ​