It was my birthday. I had woken up early to curl my hair and put on the little white dress I had bought especially for the occasion. As I arrived to my 9am Theology class at Hillsdale College, I expected the day to go along as usual. I passed in my homework, listened to the lecture, and internally facepalmed every time "The Voice", a long-winded student sitting a few seats down, asked another question. When class ended, I packed up my things to leave, only to be interrupted by someone calling my name. I turned around to come face-to-face with him... "The Voice". Though we had been in the class together the entire semester, we had never officially met. Honestly, I hadn't even known what he looked like, let alone his name. "Oh gosh," I thought, "I might be here a while." "The Voice" introduced himself as Zach and began congratulating me on receiving the highest paper grade. But not for my Theology paper, rather one I had turned in for a DIFFERENT class (one that he was not in). Needless to say I was very confused how this random guy knew my class schedule. My look of bewilderment did not faze him though. Without missing a beat, he began giving me a drawn out explanation of his preparation plan for his school papers. I stood there listening, still very confused and wondering where I fit in, until he finally asked for paper writing advice. It was really cute, he thought I was some kind of paper-writing genius. Unfortunately for him, I wasn't much help because I had written the paper at 2am the night before it was due and just hoped it sounded smart. When I told him this, his reaction was priceless. Luckily, we found this awkward scenario hysterical and laughed together as we left class. In that moment, I thought to myself, "He's a pretty funny nerd. I could probably be friends with him." Never would I have imagined that this would be the start of something new, or that I'd be marrying "The Voice" from Theology class. P.S. God definitely has a sense of humor.

She was wearing a white dress. I also remember thinking, at the time, that this girl I just met after Theology class was both really cute and really smart. As I said goodbye to Victoria, and she walked back to her dorm, I laughed about how many hours I had spent slaving away on a paper while Victoria had written hers the night before and gotten the highest grade in the class. Oh, the irony. Technically, that was the first time we met. Short and simple. I don't think either of us thought much of what had happened. Little did I know that Victoria would become my best friend, and that our first real bonding experience would happen in the kitchen of Niedfeldt, my Freshman dorm. It was the night of the Niedfeldt Christmas party, and my RA had asked me to "go help Victoria with the cookies." It wasn't until I entered the kitchen that my previously apathetic "ok" turned into a 2016 Audi R8 purr. There she was: a Mrs. Claus apron, an elf hat, and a beaming smile. If you could have put a stethoscope to my chest you would have heard the brass marching band from "The Music Man." She was gorgeous, and I knew then and there that I wanted to date her. For the rest of the night, Victoria and I worked together on the cookies, especially the decorating part. She made lovely designs, although I still maintain that the only gingerbread people whose heads kept mysteriously falling off were the men. I even confronted her about this and, in a tone I will never forget, she said, "Men are built to endure pain." We laughed so, so hard. I still give her a hard time about it because that moment featured the start of a beautiful friendship.

A few days after our sophmore winter break started, I confessed to Zach that I had feelings for him. He was so shocked, probably because I had already turned him down a few times before, that he hung up on me. Luckily, he ended up calling me back the next morning to ask me on a date. This was my first date EVER- and I was a litte nervous. But apparently, I wasn’t as nervous as Zach, as I spent most of the day just trying to get him to hold my hand. I'd casually brush it against his or lay it on the rail next to his— nothing. Finally, 4 hours in, he reached for my hand. But instead of intertwining our fingers, he started poking my arm. I stared at him in confusion and asked what he was doing. He responded with "Your arms aren't like my brother's." "Uhh, well I hope not?" After a few more awkward moments I finally just asked Zach if he wanted to hold my hand. Thankfully, he did. As the sun began to set, he took me over to this beautiful bridge overlooking the park. I just knew he was going to kiss me, and like what better way to get your first kiss than at Disney? He moved the hair from out of my face and started leaning in, then... a giant family walked by, adults screaming, children crying. He pulled away. This happened about 3 more times before I took Zach to a more isolated part of the park by the Tree of Life. It was beautifully illuminated and the fireworks were just about to begin. I was standing on a step, and he picked me up and spun me around. I felt like a princess. As he leaned in to kiss me, he changed his mind and went for hug. I couldn't even wrap my arms around him because he had a giant backpack stuffed with books, shoes, and etc. Then, as Zach pulled back he accidentally whacked me with the bag and kinda ruined the moment. The time came to leave, and I hadn’t gotten my kiss. But, as we were riding past Magic Kingdom watching the fireworks he kissed me. Not what I had planned, but it was perfect. And thus began another Disney happily ever after...

Two dozen roses? Check. Sand castle utensils? Check. Sparkling apple juice (Victoria's favorite sweet beverage)? Check. Pristine location (Victoria's favorite beach spot)? Check. Sneaky diversion (Vanessa and Victoria spending the whole morning and most of the afternoon having fun together)? Check. My plan seemed to be going perfectly. When I arrived at the beach, and set up my work station, I had prepared to spend close to 5 hours working on an enormous sand sculpture. In my head, I wanted to build a Disney princess castle enveloping a heart that said, "Will you marry me?" Well, I got the heart made before trouble set in. A man on a 4-wheeler rode up and said, "Be sure to pack up by 5. Beaches are closing for COVID." My heart sank. This changed everything. Not only did I have to improvise, but I had to do so while informing Ms. Val and Vanessa of what was going on. With determination and a lot of hustle, I pulled it off. When I started walking down the beach to meet Victoria, she had no idea what was going on. She still thought I had come to the beach to relax. When we met up, we turned and continued walking down the beach toward her rocks like we had many times before. As we got closer, she began to squint. 'What is that?" From a distance, it seemed like someone had piled up a line of sticks in the sand. We got closer. A reddish color blazed from the tops of the sticks. We got closer and Victoria put her hand on her heart. Before us was a sand wall and tower. Shooting up out of the wall were a series of lush roses. As I led Victoria around the wall, the sand heart became visible and I dropped to one knee. Victoria later told me that she was so caught up in the moment that she forgot what I said. Thankfully she wears a ring, forever memorializing the day I asked her to be my Queen. It wasn't until the next day that something else came into focus: without knowing, I had proposed on her Grandmother's birthday. It felt like heaven had approved the match.