Garrett and I met during the second year of our undergraduate studies at the University of Louisville. One of my roommates was in a study group with Garrett, and she invited me to go to a pancake night early on in the semester. We sat with Garrett, who was also at the event, and after a few laughs and pancakes later, Garrett and I became friends. Over the next two years, we remained friends, sending memes and texting occasionally. When Garrett started his co-op at Toyota in Georgetown, we occasionally met up when I was home in Frankfort. Some of the more memorable times include when Garrett ate pizza at my house with my family, or another time where we sat in his car at a park and lost track of time as we talked about our lives. While we didn’t always remain in constant contact, we knew our friendship was important.

4 weeks into the Fall 2021 semester I was sitting at my 3rd Ignite ministry pancake dinner. Eventually I was joined by my friend Hannah, a fellow mechanical engineer, who decided to stop by and see how good pancakes made by college freshmen at 8pm could be. While Hannah and I discussed our classwork and our study collective's plans for the week she mentioned her friend and roommate, Tai, was gonna swing by towards the end of the night and keep her company on the walk back to their apartment. Later when Tai walked in one singular thought entered my mind: "That is someone worth marrying." Once Hannah introduced us to one another, we then went on to have a lovely discussion about philosophy for 20 minutes and not eat a single pancake. I truly enjoyed the time Tai and I spent exchanging mental images of the universe.

Over Thanksgiving break during our fourth year at UofL, Garrett asked me about applying to PhD programs. I didn’t want to type everything out, so I asked Garrett to call. A few hours later, we were laughing and talking like old times. When we both went back to Louisville after the break, we started to spend more time together and Garrett quickly realized (I followed suit eventually) we were more than “just friends.”

On Thanksgiving day in 2023, Tai sent a snapchat about applying for PhD programs. At the time, I was also interested in potentially pursuing a PhD and decided to text Tai about what the process was like and how to start applying myself. Instead of replying to my text Tai chose to call me instead saying, "Typing all this out would take too long, so I'm calling you instead." This call ended up lasting 2 hours and delaying family game night. After a lovely conversation, we decided to hang out more upon returning to school after Thanksgiving break.

Around mid-June 2024, Tai showed me an engagement ring they designed "for fun". I wrote down what they created, and I ended up ordering the ring in mid-October. Tai doesn't like surprises, but I do, so we agreed that I had to tell them I was gonna propose and then anytime within the next 7 days; I could propose at any moment. However, despite having a lovely ring, the plan was to propose with a ring pop that had been a central figure in our relationship since the beginning because we had joked about getting engaged with a ring pop a lot. I had the proposal all planned out for when Tai flew back to Kentucky the week of Thanksgiving 2024. When we were still friends, there was a park in Georgetown we frequented where we sat in my car and talked for hours on many an occasion. That is where I planned to propose. I had also decided to get dinner with Tai’s parents on the way to get them from the airport. After picking up Tai from the airport, I told them we had to go to Georgetown and meet my friend at that park we visited pretty often when we were friends. We were going there in order to pick up their birthday gift from my friend who was helping me make it. This was a lie, but a necessary one to lead us to the altar.

Early in our relationship, we knew we wanted to get married. It was only a matter of when and how. I dropped many not-so-subtle hints to Garrett, even going as far as designing an engagement ring. We agreed on a timeframe for when we’d become engaged, but I secretly was hoping things would happen sooner. If you know me, I’m not a fan of surprises, so Garrett and I agreed that I would know “within the week” of when he would propose. I had suspicions it would be before Thanksgiving, but I didn’t know which day. Garrett picked me up from the airport in Lexington on a Saturday when I was coming from Philly for the holiday. He had previously asked me to go on a date on Sunday, so I was sure that was going to be the day. After telling me he needed to pick something up that he made for my birthday from a friend at Toyota, I didn’t think anything of it. We ended up going to the park because Garrett no longer had access to Toyota at night (this was an excuse to get me to the park). We sat in the car at the park where we talked a couple years prior, and I was getting antsy waiting for his friend because I was tired. Garrett had us get out of the car so we could stretch. I went in for a hug and noticed Garrett’s heart was beating incredibly fast. I said “Your heart is beating super fast. You’re about to propose, aren’t you?” Garrett replied, “What if I was?” and he got down on one knee. I was so excited and in shock—he surprised me, and for the first time in my life, I loved the surprise.