Nick and I met on September 8, 2017. It was 1 week into our freshman year at the University of Michigan and we were living three doors down from each other on the 3rd floor, Tyler Hall in the East Quad dormitory. Our resident advisor had organized a social event where a group of students from our hall were meeting up to attend the UMix, a free late-night "mixer" at the Michigan Union with games, arts and crafts, food, and activities. When I first saw Nick, he looked very familiar. Later I would realize he was the guy who had somehow known my name and said "Hi Abbey!" as we passed in the hall several times in the past week. He remembered it from our first hall meeting. He introduced himself to me and we talked as we walked together to the UMix. We went to one of the ballrooms where they had an inflatable obstacle course set up, one with two spinning arms at different heights that try to knock you off of a platform. I quickly tired out from getting knocked over and stood by the edge and watched. I remember Nick continually getting whacked and falling off, which was hilarious to watch, but I admired his determination and perseverance as he kept getting back up and trying again. We went to another obstacle which was a two-person race up a wall and down a slide and each of my friends paired off and completed it. We had an odd number of people so after I and everyone else had gone, Nick, being the newcomer to our friend group, was left as the odd man out and I volunteered to go again so he could try it as well. He beat me, sadly, but was very appreciative that I had offered to go with him and suffered defeat with such grace. The next day, I was in my room talking to some other people from our hall and Nick stopped by on the way back from brushing his teeth. Someone asked me what my plans were for Sunday and I mentioned going to check out a church called New Life. Nick said he had also been wanting to find a church and asked if he could come with me. I said of course and the next day we went. At church we met friends who would later become members of our small group Bible study for years to come. We were ushered into sitting in the front row and as the worship music played, I turned to my left to see Nick with his eyes closed and hands in the air, praising God. My heart swelled. I had never seen a guy worship God so boldly and unabashedly. That was the moment I was sold on him. He was going to be my best friend. Nick and I would proceed to indeed become best friends. We spent every free moment together eating our meals together in the dining hall, studying together at the library, and walking to class. There was one day when we were together for 18 hours straight from 9am eating breakfast before a Michigan football game to 3 am in the morning talking and laughing in one of the hall lounges. I started cheering him on at his intramural soccer games and one game when he scored a goal, he pointed to me in the stands. I felt like the protagonist in a cheesy 90s soccer Rom-Com and I couldn't have been happier about it. Just two weeks after we met, we got dressed up and went to see a free symphony concert with all our friends. Nick and I sat next to each other and afterwards he walked me back to my dorm room and lingered for awhile. I could tell there was something he wanted to say and finally he casually blurted out something like this "So you know how everyone kind of thinks that we're dating because we spend so much time together...what if we actually did date?" I was so elated I could hardly speak, but I was also nervous to say yes to dating a guy I had only known for 2 weeks so I responded that I really liked him but needed some time to think about it. Nick took this still as a win and later told me he fist-pumped in the hallway as he walked out of my room. Turns out I didn't need to think for too long. Less than a week later, I invited him to join me in the courtyard of East Quad and said I had a surprise for him. I had made him a Spotify playlist entitled "Nick's Jesus Jams" with some of my favorite Christian music and in the playlist caption I wrote "Happy 3-week Friendship-versary. Here's to growing in our faith, growing as friends, and growing into something more than friends ;)". We went on our first date the next day, dinner at Zingerman's Deli and a scary movie (IT). After we got back we took my hammock to the Diag and sat and talked until midnight. It was the start of our relationship and a lifetime of adventures together.

The first time I realized that I wanted to spend my life with Abbey was back in the summer of 2019. There was not one specific moment that I can call on as a reference point. It was more like a series of realizations and feelings that built up to my decision. I knew that Abbey was not ready for that level of commitment, and her life was in a state of flux as she was looking toward grad school. So I waited.

I sat on those feelings for over a year. We finally had “the talk” in October of 2020, but we ultimately decided to wait until spring of 2022. On our 4-year anniversary in September of 2021, we looked at rings, picking out styles and details that Abbey loved. We took notes on a little index card, which I kept in my wallet for the next six months until I got the ring. I worked with a friend of Christine’s to design the ring. I knew what Abbey liked, but I had the creative freedom to put it all together. I picked up the ring in late March, but I had to sit on it for three weeks because Abbey decided it was the right time to go down to Austin.

I proposed on April 8, 2022. My plan for the night was to start at a party my graduate program was hosting for the soon-to-be-graduating second years. This gave me the excuse to dress up nice and have a fancy date night. I picked Abbey up, but she was running late (of course). I was already incredibly nervous, and this just stressed me out even more. What pushed my nerves over the edge was when she got in the car with a ring on her finger. It was just a joke, but I began to worry that she had figured everything out. We went to the party, where she was finally able to meet most of my friends in the program. But what she didn’t know was that they all knew I was going to propose. While she was talking to one group, I was on the other side of the room telling the guys about what we had planned for the evening.

We left the party and drove downtown. I made sure to keep the restaurant a surprise because we had to walk in the opposite direction to get to the proposal spot. I sneakily said that I forgot something in the car so I could go back to get the ring and let Daria know we were on the way. We started walking in toward State Street, and Abbey did the most infuriating thing. She started to ask questions. “Where are we going? Why are we going this way?” I had to keep telling her that I couldn’t say because that would ruin the surprise. She now says that she started to suspect something was going on, but I don’t believe her. I was too sneaky to give it away. We walked through Nickels Arcade (a beautiful covered walkway), and I wanted to stop for a picture. I knew that Daria, Abbey’s roommate and good friend, was waiting on the other side of the walkway behind a pillar to record everything, so I tried to get as close to her as possible. Abbey insisted that we take it far away from that end because the lighting was better. We took the picture and kept walking. Then she made us stop to look at some birds, further building my nervous anxiety. When we got closer, Abbey spotted Daria peeking out from behind the pillar. She asked what she was doing here, and I said that I asked her to come and take pictures since we looked so nice. I thought I had covered it up pretty well, but Abbey later said that she realized as soon as she saw Daria. Daria took pictures of us both, and then did solo shots of both of us. Daria took the first picture of Abbey, and I had her turn around so she could get a shot of her looking down the arcade. I got down on one knee and told her to turn around. I asked her to marry me. I didn’t get a yes until after at least 30 seconds of fawning over the ring, but she finally agreed. We posed for some pictures, thanked Daria for coming, and went to dinner. We ate at Aventura, a Spanish tapas restaurant, who very graciously brought us free glasses of champagne to celebrate. We had a beautiful evening, and capped it off by calling our families and close friends.

It was a wonderful, even if stressful, day to celebrate the start of our new life together.