Alec and I met on a couch at our community college back in 2018. He asked if he could sit next to me and after 5 minutes of listening to him make jokes while I chuckled to myself, I decided to make a snide joke which threw him off guard and caused him to laugh. Little did I know just moments after I had left, he turned to one of his friends and said that he was going to marry me one day. Every day I waited on the couch hoping to see him again. Thankfully, I didn't have to wait too long! After some talking, flirting, and sharing bad jokes, I attempted to ask him out. It went kind of like this: Zoe: Hey, so... ummm... do you wanna like, ya know? Alec: What?" Zoe: Well I really like you, and um, I can't even, so yeah. It took about 10 minutes for him to understand what I was trying to say and after almost dying from hysterical laughter we were a couple. After that, our time together was short. He went to Army basic training not too long after we started dating and I knew that he could be gone more than he was home. I was undeterred. I was going to college, and life was good. Alec finally came back from training and we had started properly dating again. Despite our ups and downs, everything fell into place. 5 years later, on April 21st, 2023, it's my birthday and Alec is insisting on taking the dogs on a walk at 7 am. Despite wanting to murder him for waking me up on my birthday at 7 in the morning, he finally got me to go on a walk. We walked on a small dirt path up to a pond near our house with an old wood bridge crossing over it. Around this time, you could see the sun coming up and light glittering on the water. However, given that it was 7 in the morning, I didn't necessarily care to walk over the bridge as it doubles the amount of time it takes to get to the end of the trail. After some back and forth he convinced me to get on the bridge and walk just a few feet in front of him. About halfway across the bridge, I heard him call out to me only to turn around to him on one knee with a small box in his hand. To say I wasn't expecting it would be an understatement. My face must've been something to behold as he hasn't shut up about it since. 5 years had been leading up to this moment and we couldn't be happier!