We're getting married!

Like so many of our friends, we met through Reformed University Fellowship at UMD. Fall of 2020 was right in the middle of Covid, but I "met" Jillian online through virtual game nights and club meetups with RUF. I thought she was cute straight away, and it was a lot of fun destroying our friends in Jackbox Games when we got put on teams together, but I didn't really meet her until after church one day. She happened to be visiting Port Towns that week, and afterwards we went out for lunch with our friends Alex and Julia Na. We sat outside in the UMD chapel garden six feet away from each other, and it was a lot of fun getting to know Jillian better. From then on I definitely had a crush on her, but my way-too-subtle attempts at flirting weren't particularly effective (or so I had thought). Our friend Isa Baker was the one who finally got us together, after "tricking" Jillian into going on a double-date with us and Isa's fiancé Edwin Gamez. After a very nice dinner, I realized that I'd forgotten to put on deodorant that day, and in my typical fashion, I spent probably too long apologizing for it (though Jillian insists it wasn't noticeable, I beg to differ as it was the middle of June). Though I was worried I'd blown it, I asked Jillian out the next day, and we starting dating on June 12th 2021. The first year we were dating was a whirlwind, but I'm so glad I had Jillian by my side along the way. Graduating from UMD, picking a graduate school, and ultimately moving to Baltimore and starting at JHU was a lot of major changes in a short amount of time, but the support, care, and understanding Jillian had for me while I struggled with all of this was so important to me. Around the time I had started at Hopkins, it was clear to me that I wanted to marry Jillian, and (thankfully) she felt the same way. That said, we wanted to make sure she was done at school first, so then we began the clear "waiting" period of our relationship that's lasted about 1.5 years now. Though we weren't engaged during most of this time, it was a really nice anchor for me to know that even an hour away from Jillian I could still always rely on her to be there for me, and the comfort of having this wedding to look forward to was so important as I moved away from her, my many friends at UMD, and the life I'd had for the previous four years. It hit me like a brick at the beginning of last summer that I needed to propose to Jillian if I wanted to marry her this summer, as we are both way too busy to plan a wedding in less than a year (respect to those that do, though). As I tend to do, I procrastinated a little longer than I should have and ended up having to propose the final free weekend we had before we went back to school, so she definitely was anticipating it. Though I tried to take her to Rita's beforehand to throw her off guard (who would ever consider proposing after eating a bright red gelati? Certainly not me (don't look at our engagement photos too closely)). Still, she definitely knew it was coming, but it didn't take away from the moment. What did take away from the moment was the two fisherpeople moving directly into the spot I was planning to propose at. Thankfully though, some recruited bystanders stealthily asked them to move away before Jillian got tired of me insisting that we keep sitting on the nearby bench while I waited. Since being engaged, my relationship with Jillian has only strengthened, and I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with her. I have said this before, mostly just to my close friends, but I've always felt that the best relationships are built out of many shared experiences, not from an innate "spark". Though we certainly had a strong connection from the very beginning, it was ultimately the many years of laughing, hanging out with friends, attending RUF, studying, praying, and just being together that showed me that I did not want to live a life without Jillian. I cannot wait to build that life together with her.

I first met Dylan in the fall of 2020 at Port Towns Church during my freshman year at UMD. Our mutual friends Alex and Julia suggested we go get lunch after Church for Dylan’s birthday. After eating outside 6 feet apart, Alex offered to drive me back to my dorm. Even though Dylan had to go in the opposite direction, he walked back with us all the way to Alex's car. I thought that might have been a sign he wanted to keep talking to me, but I wasn't going to think much about it. That would be the first of many signs that Dylan wanted to get to know me better; the most obvious one was being convinced to sign up for RUF’s flag football team only after I did. Suffice it to say, I had my suspicions that he liked me. In the summer of 2021, I had planned to spend a day with my best friend Isa before she left for Miami. Unbeknownst to me, she had been scheming with Dylan to devise a way for us to hang out. The story I was told was that she didn’t want me to feel like a third wheel with her then boyfriend now fiancé Edwin, so she would ask another friend to come with us. That friend was Dylan. I was really excited for the chance to spend more time with him, but I had to play it cool, so I said, "yeah that's fine." That evening was so fun, and Dylan did not smell even though he repeatedly asked me if he did after he realized he forgot to put deodorant on. Once we were all back home, Isa texts me and says, "Dude I think Dylan was flirting with you." My response was, "I couldn't tell, but I hope he was." That confirmed for Dylan that I liked him back, and the next morning he texted me to ask if I wanted to go out with him. On that first date, we went hiking, had dinner at Busboys and Poets, and then took a walk around UMD’s campus. After our walk, we sat down on a campus bench next to some noisy cicadas, and Dylan told me how he felt about me, and we officially started dating. At the end of the summer, Dylan and I were at a restaurant, and there was an old grape jelly packet left on the table. I took it with me and hid it in Dylan’s car. Dylan returned the favor by hiding it in my backpack, and so it went back and forth. When Dylan moved to Baltimore in the summer of 2022 to start his PhD program at Johns Hopkins, we found that grape jelly while we were packing and had to save it when Dylan's mom tried to throw it out. Flash forward to the summer of 2023, and again I had suspicions, but this time it was that Dylan would be proposing by the end of the summer. This was not a surprise because we had talked about getting married after I graduated and had gone ring shopping a few months before. On the day that Dylan proposed, I kept going back and forth thinking, "Oh I think this is it," and then, "Ah no, I’m being silly, this probably isn't it." But he did propose at the spot where we had our first kiss, and what did he put the ring inside of? The grape jelly container. Don't worry, he cleaned it out first. Even though I was half expecting the proposal, the grape jelly reappearance was a complete surprise. The other thing I did not anticipate was the inscription he put on my engagement ring which says, "three summers now," which all the Swifties will recognize from the lyric, "I've loved you three summers now, honey, but I want 'em all." In our time together, Dylan has shown me the importance of honesty and communication in a relationship. He has a servant's heart, a beautiful smile, an incredible mind, the most gorgeous eyes, and best of all a love for the Lord. Plus, he’s a great drummer :)