It started with a swipe. We met as a lot of current relationships now meet, online. I was in college in Kearney and Joseph had just moved to Holdrege to live with his friend Bryce. One day a notification lit up on my phone saying I had matched with Joseph. We began talking nonstop and planned our first date for March 19th. I ended up reaching out a couple days early because we were both anxious to meet each other in person.

March 17th 2022 we went on the first of many dates. Joseph picked me up from my dorm room and we drove around trying to figure out what we wanted to do. We first went to the mall, but most stores were closed. We ended up at a Casey's where I bought pizza for us even though Joseph insisted on paying. We sat in the parking lot of Yanney park and ate the pizza and got to know each other. There was an instant connection. We ended up walking around Target because there wasn't much else to do but we wanted to keep talking to each other. Joseph dropped me off at my dorm, but we ended up talking to each other for the rest of the night. We couldn't get enough of each other, I think we both knew this was a connection we hadn't felt with anyone else. We continued talking on the phone until the 19th, when our first date was supposed to happen.

March 19th, the day of our original date Joseph had it all planned out for me. He took me to my favorite place in Kearney, Gourmet House, a Japanese restaurant. This is where our love of Gyoza came from. After eating, Joseph started driving towards Yanney Park when a message from his dad popped up on the screen of his car asking if he had a girlfriend yet. I tried to contain my excitement as we parked in the same spot as we had the other night. Joseph went on a tangent about how he knows we hadn't known each other for a long time, but he felt a connection, and he wanted to spend more time with me to get to know me. He then asked me to officially become his girlfriend, then asked if he could "kiss his girlfriend."

During summer break I was driving back and forth from Grand Island to Holdrege so much that Joseph and Bryce suggested that I move in with them in Holdrege. This was a turning point in our relationship as I had never lived with anyone before. This is when we really became serious. I think we both knew early on this was going to last. As we spent more time living together, the more we thought about how nice it would be to have a place to call our own. Joseph had mention how he wanted to move to Iowa to be closer to his family, and after visiting a few times, we seriously started to talk about moving.

We officially decided to move on Christmas 2022. We went to my family's Christmas so I could say goodbye and then we were on the road and headed to Iowa. We stayed with Joseph's grandparents Irene and Alan and celebrated Christmas together for the first time. Joseph's dad Jamie and sister Gabby came down for Christmas and ended up helping us go back to Nebraska to get a U-Haul to get the bigger furniture and the last of our stuff from the house and haul it up to Iowa. We ended up staying with Joseph's grandparents for a few months while we got established with jobs and went apartment hunting. We officially got an apartment on February 13th and started moving in on Valentine's day. Having our own space for the first time in our entire relationship took a little bit to get used to at first, but once we got settled and fell into a routine it felt so natural.

I knew Joseph was planning on proposing a few months before it happened. On March 19th, 2023 Joseph took me out to celebrate our first anniversary. We went out bowling and then ate at the bar that was connected before deciding to come home. We stopped at Walker Johnson, a park near our house where he proposed. My ring hadn't came yet so Joseph proposed with a paper ring he made me. I didn't expect the paper ring but my heart burst with excitement. Honestly, the paper ring was more than enough because all I could think about was spending forever with my best friend. We came home and we immediately called some of our family to tell them that we were engaged, not that anyone could really understand me due to all the tears.