We met our first semester of freshmen year at Butler University. With classes filling up quickly we both enrolled in a first year seminar class called “All About the Bike”, which was a year long class. It wasn’t until 2nd semester when we started talking. Being the shy person that Ryan is, he reached out to Ally on Twitter, talking about all things sports after seeing Ally tweet frequently about the Chicago Cubs. Ryan asked Ally out a couple weeks before they left for Summer break, the relationship didn’t last for too long, but we reconnected early sophomore year and the rest is history.

The summer of 2023 was a busy one. We had been in our apartment for about a year and decided that it was time to get a dog. In early July we welcomed a golden retriever to our family, Hink. We had been thinking about getting a dog for a few months and found the perfect breeder in Indiana. Bringing Hink home was one of the best moments of our relationship, but little did Ally know I would be proposing to her a week later at Butler. The months leading up to the proposal I worked with my family and Ally’s family to plan the perfect day as I wanted everyone to be there. I first asked Ally to be my girlfriend on the steps on the bell tower at Butler and wanted to propose in the same area on campus. Getting Hink was the perfect distraction leading up to the proposal. We got him acclimated to his new home, while I planned the proposal for the upcoming Saturday. As the days went by I decided to suggest to Ally that we should dress up and take Hink to Butler to take pictures as well as get our season tickets for basketball (even though I already bought them). In addition to visiting Butler we could stop at Ally’s favorite soap shop: Buff City. As we traveled down to Butler I mentioned to Ally that we had to stop at my parents to grab some money that my mom left behind, as she wanted us to buy a few things at Buff City. I went into the house grabbed the ring and then put it in my pocket and we were on our way. Once we arrived to Butler we took Hink to some of our favorite spots on campus and took a ton of cute pictures! We slowly made our way down to the bell tower, our families were hidden around with their cameras ready. I suggested that we take a few pictures in-front of the fountain with Hink. I let Ally hold Hink and said to him: “Hinky…up by the tower is where I asked Ally to be my girlfriend and down here is where I am going to ask her to be my wife….Ally Fulton will you marry me?” - Ryan