I was new to the Dayton area while completing my second clinical placement for grad school. I took to Facebook dating to meet people in the area. Meanwhile, Chase had been transferred to Monroe, OH from Texas to open a new wearhouse for the company he worked for at the time. He had leased an apartment less than 5 minutes away from Kettering, where I was living. he also took to facebook dating. His profile immediately caught my eye; the beard, the truck, the dog. I sent him a message and within two days, we set up a date at Candado Tacos at The Greene, where we spent multiple hours together shutting down the restaurant, they had to ask us to leave so they could close. Within two weeks, his dog Molly was at my house permanently, and Chase turned off everything at his apartment except the fridge and practically moved in with me; only going to his place to check on things and get more clothes. We have been best friends since day one and have done nothing short of growing our relationship with one another since then.

2022 seems like so long ago. But in our 3.5 years together, we have bought, moved and lived in our camper for 18 months, celebrated 6 birthdays, met our very best friends, moved 8 times between the two of us, visited 10 states, welcomed our cat Charlie into the family, lived 1,500 miles apart and our most recent adventure, planning our wedding together! It has truly flown by but seems like so along ago that we met, not knowing it would turn into the best 3.5 years full of laughter, growth, tears, and change but most of all, building a life we love, together.

After visiting and having lunch with my grandpa, we headed back to my parents' house. Chase had been talking about a waterfall he wanted to hike to near their house. I was curious as to why he was so adamant about hiking to this waterfall, mostly because it was hot and he doesn't do many outdoor activities in the heat, but he loves waterfalls. At this point, I said, "are you SURE you want to go hiking? It's 1.5 miles one way to this waterfall". But again, he was adamant, so we headed for the trailhead. After arriving at the waterfall, we walked around a bit, snapping pictures and enjoying wading in the water. Looking for a place to set up my phone to take a picture, Chase suggested taking a trial picture to ensure everything is in the frame first. We snapped the picture and he went to check it out. Instead of looking at the trial picture, he started the video recording. I still had no idea what was coming. He got back to me and posed for the picture. Instead of smiling for the picture, he said," Do you really wanna know why we came out here?" at which point he got down on his knee and proposed. It was the most spontaneous yet thought-out proposal, and I couldn't have dreamed of a better place and timing.