It all started on a beautiful spring evening at UC Davis. Maddie’s sorority and my fraternity were playing in a co-ed softball league together. I was there to win, but Maddie was there to bring positivity and for the social aspect. I noticed this (disregarding how she didn’t care about winning much to my competitive side's horror) and was immediately interested in getting to know this bubbly girl more! However, summer break put a halt to any idea that I had. Luckily, it didn’t take long for us to meet up again at a party and instantly hit it off. We had dates around Davis, formal events within Greek life and multiple 7-11 runs for some study Slurpees! After college, I moved to the Bay Area and started work while also visiting Maddie in Davis about every other weekend. I only lived about 15 minutes from Maddie’s parents so that made the long distance much easier. Once Maddie was done with school, she moved back to the area to work at 23andMe and our relationship kept progressing. We would see each other a lot and after finding that Maddie had “left” a lot of things at my apartment already, we decided that it was time to live together. We lived in San Carlos for a year and are now in San Mateo in a perfect place to start our lives together. Because of the virus that shall not be named, my original plans to propose were derailed, but I knew I couldn’t wait any longer to call Maddie my fiancé and popped the question on a beach in Lake Tahoe in December 2020. She said yes (thankfully!) and now we are so excited to get married and celebrate with everyone! Written by Eric