It all happened because Katie said "I'm not walking that far across campus." Senior year at UConn (Fall Semester 2014), Katie was signed up for a rather boring broadcast communications class. It was so boring, in fact, she decided to drop the class off her schedule, and signed up for what she thought sounded much more interesting - a class called Nonverbal Communication. Sitting a few rows in front of her in Nonverbal Comm was Patrick! A few classes later and we end up sitting closer together, the professor cracked a lame joke, we turned toward each other and smiled, and got to chatting after class got out. Eventually, Pat worked up the nerve to ask Katie for her number, and was convinced she gave him a fake number (spoiler alert: she didn't) because she didn't answer his first text right away. The rest of the semester we text back and forth, sit together in class, and study for the final exam together.....and that's about it. Winter break comes and goes, we keep texting a bit, just before spring semester starts Patrick asks Katie if she wants to meet up at Ted's (the best bar at UConn), and she says "Sorry! I'm in Florida!" When she gets back to campus, Katie looks over her spring schedule. She's enrolled for a floral arranging class but decides "nope, I'm not walking that far across campus for that" and signs up for some random class in a more convenient location called Sociology of Health. The first day of class comes around and who is waiting outside the classroom before Sociology of Health but the one and only, Patrick Petro! The rest of the semester we sit together in class, complain about the awful professor together, blow off studying to go to Applebee's, and call ourselves boyfriend and girlfriend. Katie didn't want to hike across campus for a lame class, but 6 years later, she found herself hiking up Gorham Mountain in Acadia National Park at 5:00am on a Monday morning, leading to a romantic, sunrise proposal!
We took a trip to Acadia National Park. Katie had a bright idea and insisted on getting up unreasonably early to see the sunrise at the park. We watched the sunrise on Cadillac Mountain, then took a hike up Gorham Mountain. He specifically wanted to do this hike because he had researched the hikes with the best views in the park. Patrick booked it up the mountain (his adrenaline was pumping!), while Katie lagged behind gasping for breath. At the top of the mountain, after a moment enjoying the views (and catching our breath), Patrick turned Katie around and dropped down to one knee!