“MAYA, WILL YOU MARRY ME?” Everyday, hundreds of students walk by a bench tucked into the green space in Eco Commons with an unusual dedication. The bench is engraved with a brief poem that ends with a proposal. Ripken Walker and Maya Davis met their first year at Georgia Tech. Maya needed help lofting a bed in her North Avenue dorm room, and her roommate called a friend who brought Ripken. Maya’s first impression was, This guy is kind of cute; I want to talk to him more. She invited him back to set up her Google Home. Although Ripken couldn’t get the device to connect, the two had already started to form a connection. Four years later, Ripken was ready to propose. As a Hall Scholar, Ripken developed a close bond with Colonel Stephen Hall. During their early-morning runs when the colonel was in town, they would pass by benches that Hall had dedicated. It sparked the idea for his own proposal. When he called the person in charge of the bench dedication program, however, she had retired the day before. “I thought maybe this isn’t meant to be and I don’t know, is this stupid buying a bench?” Still, he persisted. By spring, he had both the ring and the bench. Ripken chose Aug. 14, 2025, the fifth anniversary of the day they met at North Avenue. He told Maya they were having dinner with the Halls, who in reality, weren’t even in Atlanta. As planned, Col. Hall texted that they were going to be late. Ripken suggested a walk through EcoCommons while they waited. Maya wanted to take a different route, but Ripken was insistent on a certain path that led to the bench. When they arrived, she read the plaque. “I remember being completely confused.What is going on?” Then her siblings, who were living in Seattle at the time, and their family from Georgia jumped out of the bushes when she said yes. They hope the bench will become a place they return to for anniversaries and find its way into other students' special moments.