It was the most perfect collision of random chance. I was minding my own business at my home when a middle school friend I recently reconnected with texted me to say she was showing up without warning. Me being me, I just shrugged and went along with it. Somewhere along the way to my house she changed her plans and picked up a couple of her other friends, one of whom happened to be Liz. I hopped into the car and for a while both Liz and I completely ignored each other for a while as the plans again changed to go back to my middle school friend's place to hang out. We did eventually start talking toward the end and we hit it off. On the way back, she asked for my phone number and that's how it all began...

The two of us were going to different colleges in different states. Evan seemed fun to hang out with so I figured why not have a fun, quick summer romance before college? Not like we'd ever see each other again after I moved to Philly. He invited me and a couple friends to watch the finale of Doctor Who, and that's when I decided to ask him out. Turns out that's the entire reason he set up that party in the first place, and I beat him to the punch. We set up our first date shortly after. As time went on, I realized I didn't want to lose touch with him after all. Moving apart would be hard, but we set up plans to keep in contact with one another and figured out how to visit each other as well. So he overstayed his welcome, but that was okay with me.

Long distance was hard, but we were finally nearing the end of the road. Liz had moved in with a high school friend after graduating college back in 2015 and had a huge commute first working at a photo lab in Baltimore and later another in Cockeysville. I was finally wrapping up my senior year of college, and we went on the hunt for an apartment so we could move in together after I graduated. Both of us were fed up with having to be so far apart for the past four years, so the prospect of moving in together was exciting and new. The hunt ended up in the appropriately named Hunt Valley, where we fell in love with an apartment and the views surrounding it. After I graduated, we recruited some friends and piloted a Uhaul from the Towson Area to grab Liz's things to down south of Baltimore to pick up my stuff and all the way back up again to our new apartment. It was really nice to be so close to one another after having spent so much time apart. In addition it was great for Liz because we effectively traded commutes -- she now worked at a place incredibly close to the apartment and I now had the long commute. All things considered, I'm glad I traded the distance to her for the distance to my work.

I was absolutely bamboozled. He took me on a casual date to a BonChon and then followed up with some Cinnabon. I thought we were headed home at that point, at least that's what he told me. We did not go home. Instead we went in the complete opposite direction, where he surprised me by taking me to the location of and recreating our second date where we had gone stargazing. After reminiscing about all the stuff we'd done in the past (milestones, trips we took together, etc.) he pulled out the ring and I said "sure". He's alright, I guess he can stay. We're looking forward to seeing all of you to celebrate with us in October!