We're so excited to celebrate with you!

We met at Western's Summer Start orientation, in August of 2016. I was sitting all alone in the cafeteria, shy and not sure how to make friends. Jackson came up to the table I was sitting at, smiled and asked to sit down. The first thing he said was "I like your phone case", at the time I had a LOTR phone case that was a map of Middle Earth. We then spent lunch talking about our passion for LOTR and all things nerdy. After lunch we spent the rest of the day together, going to poetry workshops, improv comedy shows, and sitting by the fountain on campus chatting. We ate dinner together that night and when I couldn't pick what to eat and the only thing that sounded good was Ice cream. Jackson said to me "You're an adult, if you want ice cream for dinner then have it," that is when I knew he was someone I wanted to keep around. When we came back to campus that fall for the start of classes we reconnected, we had classes together and the conversation just flowed. After a month of just being friends, he asked me out to burgers and milkshakes at the local drive in, we got caught in the rain. But he kept me laughing the whole day. I quickly fell for his charm and sweetness, the rest is history.

It was the first day of orientation at Western, and I had just said goodbye to my parents after a quick campus tour. I got in the long line to head into the cafeteria, and started chatting with a couple people I met on the tour. We made our way through the line and were looking for a place to sit. I noticed a girl sitting by herself at a big empty table. She looked like she was getting ready to leave, but I thought I'd sit down and try to start a conversation. It was a new place with all new people, and I was nervous, and I could tell she was too. I asked to sit with her, and noticed her cool phone case that portrayed a map of Middle-Earth. I complemented her on her phone case, and we got to talking. I could tell immediately that we were going to friends. She was funny and bubbly, and we clicked immediately. I made it a point to get her phone number on the elevator ride back to the dorms. We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out going to workshops we had mutual interests in: poetry seminars, improv comedy shows, and tours of the library. I made the cliché joke about the Man and Bear statue outside of the library, and that was the first time I really made her laugh. It was an intoxicating feeling, and this was the first moment I felt something more. We stayed in touch over those few weeks before classes started. I tried to temper my excitement, but I couldn't keep her out of my mind. When classes started, we realized that we had unintentionally enrolled in the same intro geology class. We sat next to each other that first day and the chemistry had only gotten stronger. We agreed to hang out in the library after class, and we decided we were going to be more than friends. After almost six years, I still feel the same way I did on the walk home from class that October afternoon. To this day, I cannot remember a thing I learned in that geology class, but I did learn everything I needed to know about rocks because I found mine in Sydnie LaSalata.