Jamie and I have always been the friends that could be counted on to take part in spontaneous trips, concerts, or events. From Multi-week long road trips to Final Fours, football games, couples trips, or just group friend trips. Some of these planned less than 48 hours out. Many of these had a common denominator; I planned them. So, it would not be surprising to Jamie when we would book a trip just 35 days out for us to go to Cancun, Mexico. I used the excuse that I needed to cancel a credit card before an annual fee would hit, so she "had" to choose a trip. It was just another quick trip to somewhere we hadn't been. She had no ability to "sniff out" that a proposal may occur because admittedly, I didn't know it would occur there either. I did have permission from Mr. Cheslik, but I didn't have a diamond. With the help of her mom, sister in-law, closest friends, & my sister, I was able to dial in on the size, shape & color. We were off to Cancun to do this. I knew that Jamie wanted two things out of a proposal: 1) To be fully surprised and 2) photos. If I could pull both of these off without her being tipped off, I knew it would be a success. We arrived in our room in Cancun & I did not know what to do with the ring so she wouldn't find it, and still did not know exactly how I would get photos taken. 0/2 at this point in time. I could not put the ring in the safe considering she had other things in there, so I hid it in a drawer under all clothes, where she would not find it. I now needed to find a photographer. It is not abnormal for me to wonder off on my own to explore on our trip. So, I set off to find the resort photographer and a place where I'd later get down on a knee. After securing a photographer for 4:00 PM on March 31st, I received a confirmation email. Using my photo editing skills, I altered the confirmation and framed it up as an invite for a complimentary photo session and sent to Jamie. She, as most women, love pictures. As this was "complimentary", Jamie was ecstatic. I quickly turned the tables and explained to her that I was being sarcastic and that I was not interested in the "complimentary" photo op. This was now her idea. I pushed back enough to seem natural, but not too much as I knew we needed the photo op to occur. On March 31st, the big day, we woke up, worked out, and went out to the pool. We hung out with new friends, sat in the pool bar, and performed activities with the entertainment staff. In fact, at 3:30 (30 min prior to the photo Op), Jamie is balancing on a raft & jumping over a rope in the hopes of winning a T-shirt. As many of you know, Jamie is never on time, while I am much more timely. I was now juggling the need to get Jamie out of an environment she was thriving in, and up to the room to get ready for this photo shoot. We get down to meet the photographer just after 4:00. Leave it to Jamie to shower & get ready in 20 minutes and still look gorgeous. Throughout the first 10-15 minutes with this photographer, Jamie and I are joking about how silly this all is. We are not "photo op people" and this is not our personality. Reluctantly, we both proceed with photos in various spots around the resort. Earlier, the photographer and I decided the proposal would occur on the beach, so all I needed to do was to convince Jamie to last long enough until we made it out there. We eventually make our way to the beach and the photographer sets Jamie up looking down the beach, with me standing behind her. It was the perfect setup. He slowly has her turnaround where I am on one knee, teary-eyed. We all know Jamie is loud, but rumor has it, our families heard her scream back in Michigan and Ohio. We had an unbelievable dinner & night with friends we had made on trip. We called family and friends to tell them the news and became anxious to return to celebrate. Little did Jamie know, the surprise didn't end there. We flew back to Florida where our families were waiting to celebrate.

As many of you may know, East Lansing is one of the best places in the world. I was fortunate enough to meet the love of my life there. Long story short, we met through mutual friends. Tyler just happened to "randomly" get my snapchat through one of his buddies and decided to add me. I thought it was kind of weird, but hey, what can you do? Accept. Nothing came of it, at all, until the big shot was going to Dallas to play in the Cotton Bowl. I checked my phone and there was a snapchat from Tyler O'Connor. I was a little thrown off and of course ran to my mom and told her. We opened it together and it was a picture of the "quarterback section" on their private plane. I was intrigued, so of course I responded. We went back and forth a couple times and then I went silent. One of the characteristics that I learned quickly, and that I happened to eventually love about him, he's persistent, very persistent. That persistency kept up when he got back from the Cotton Bowl, even when I continuously ignored and bailed on him. He would ask to take me out after my practices, to dinner, to Lansing, to concerts, and I again, bailed and made excuses as to why I can't go. Until, eventually his persistency got the best of me, and I gave him a shot. Our "first date" consisted of the Lodges hot tub, Blue Moon, and my cousin Kati, because I wasn't going alone! I will say, when you meet Tyler, you love Tyler, and that is exactly what happened. I couldn't let him know that yet, so I had to continue to play hard to get. About 2 months went by, him still being persistent as ever, and I caved. We hung out again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and we never stopped. We were both extremely busy in college and we made sure that we found every chance possible to see each other, whether it be between classes and practices, going to Sansu for dinner, taking Ollie for a walk, dropping off Tropical Smoothie to wherever we were on campus, and of course on Sunday’s, you could find us at Lou Ha's or Rick's. 8 years later, here we are! Thank you for being persistent Ty, who knows where we would be without it! I cannot wait for this life together! <3