Just a heads up, we went off to separate areas of our apartment and wrote these independently. We hope you enjoy the overlaps and differences.

As the summer of 2017 drew to a close, I became very involved in planning Site Leader Retreat for Grand Valley Alternate Breaks. I was scheduling activities, communicating with Camp Henry, and arranging for food for the weekend. One morning as I was working at the front desk of the Office of Student Life, Mike (the Financial Vice President of AB) strolled in. At this point, we were only acquaintances who had served as site leaders together. I had asked Mike to help me financially plan for the food for our Site Leader Retreat. I was thinking he would give me a general budget for meals. Instead, he sent over an intensive excel spreadsheet that covered each item for each meal and snack, with estimated totals for each item (collected from perusing the aisles of Meijer and Daily Deals). The sheet was labeled, color-coded, included self-calculating equations, and even included the tag of “Mike’s Garden” for the veggies. To say I was impressed would be an understatement. I was excited that I would be working with Mike, who also wanted to pour a lot of effort and work into this student org.

    That night, I had very vivid dreams about Mike;)  I tried to shake this dream off the next day, but I just ended up dreaming about him again. When he would come into the Office of Student Life to do work for AB, I would deeply blush and avoid eye contact. Butterflies flurried in my stomach as we would make small talk at the desk. As my senior year at Grand Valley progressed, our Alternative Break executive board was at the center of my college experience. Between 3-5 hour board meetings every Wednesday night (and hour-long parking lot conversations), to volunteering events throughout the week, to constant weekend group sleepovers, my crush got deeper. My heart would flutter when Mike would charismatically present at our general meetings. My palms would get sweaty when I sat by him during activities and events. When we chatted about leading reflections and social justice, I couldn’t stop myself from grinning afterwards- the whole way home. He enjoyed learning so much, and it was so easy to talk to him about anything. One afternoon, we were crossing paths by Manitou Hall and we paused to chat for an hour. I was on cloud nine that night as I realized that we could be really good friends. We had a lot in common, and he made me laugh so easily.

This was the type of crush where I was too nervous to even talk to my closest friends about it. Everyone vaguely knew about this cute finance chair I was into, but I never provided too many details. I was simply too nervous and didn’t want to get my hopes up. I couldn’t imagine this charming, smart, funny, sweet boy actually returning my intense feelings. So I ignored these feelings the best I could for a year, until our AB days were coming to an end. I tried to push thoughts of Mike out of my mind while we were on the board together because that wouldn’t be “professional.”

    At Mike’s graduation, I was working for Grand Valley and helping run the ceremony. I was right at the side of the stage, and I was able to give Mike a hug right before he crossed the stage. As I watched him walk, I realized that I needed to speak up about my crush or Mike would move on away from Grand Valley and Grand Rapids and me. He hadn’t noticed my interest in him, and I needed to make it clear. So I built up my courage. I chatted with him more, I met his high school friends, and our friends even helped arrange us to sing karaoke together. Within a few weeks, I mustered up enough courage to text Mike and ask him out. He accepted!

In the months and years to follow, we built our relationship. Mike asked me to be his girlfriend after a kayak and movie date. I brought him home (way too early) to meet my family and friends. We shared our favorite foods, shows, and even enjoyed a mini-vacation to Traverse City together during our first summer. Since the summer of 2018, we have been learning about each other and working on our relationship. We have both completed a Master’s degree, began our careers, moved in together, and constantly work on our communication and compromise with each other. We have found that with our time together we enjoy eating really good food, enjoying nature and camping, hosting parties for our friends, and traveling. Our favorite adventure so far has been our two-week trip to Europe this past summer. I love experiencing life with Mike. He is truly my best friend and the best person I know. He planned the perfect engagement for us over the weekend of October 21st and 22nd in 2022, and it was the easiest yes that I have uttered. I am so excited to continue building our lives and future with my forever-crush.

I met Amber in 2016. We were at a site leader retreat for Alternative Breaks at GVSU. Even though we were in the same student organization, I didn’t spend too much time getting to know her. We were elected to the executive board of the organization in the spring of 2017 and began to work with each other on planning the next site leader retreat. To help Amber out, I created a spreadsheet outlining the cost of providing food for the retreat. I was hopeful that it would make her job a little easier. Later in the fall of 2017, we ran into each other outside of Manitou Hall on the Allendale campus and had a wonderful conversation about student organizations and university spending.

Throughout the school year, we worked on a number of projects together. We had Michigan History together in the fall semester but we didn't sit next to one another. She was always late to class and sat with the other teaching students. I sat next to the nontraditional students - obviously. To create more transparency around some of the payments our organization issued to students, she helped me out and signed the envelope each check was placed in! One day in April, I guess she had “found $10 dollars on the ground” and wanted to buy me Burger King at a check signing event! She surprised me with the cowboy burger which consists of BBQ sauce and onion rings! It was so yummy and little did I know it would be one of the thousands of meals I’d end up eating with her. In the spring, Amber started hanging out with my social group even coming to Sam Sherman’s house to hang out with my high school friends, known as "Fam." Everyone thought Scott and Amber were for sure hitting it off!

After spending time getting to know Amber, I thought she was incredibly intelligent, thoughtful, and I admired how focused she was on making the most of her time at GVSU. As a friend, I respected her commitment to social justice and environmental issues. Going into the summer of 2018, I looked forward to spending more time with her.

One afternoon around lunchtime in May of 2018 I got this text from Amber asking if we wanted to go on a date! I was shocked! I had no idea Amber saw me in a romantic light. I mean sure, she did ask me a lot about cryptocurrencies but friends just do that, right?

We ended up going on just a few dates before I asked her to be my girlfriend. To this day I remember the smile on her face from that moment. Our first summer together was a ton of fun! I met her parents over the Fourth of July holiday in St. Clair, and got to know some of her close friends from back home! I helped her move into her house at the end of July, and she helped me move out of my parent's house for the first time in early August! We passed the moving test twice in a matter of weeks!

We both started to learn more about each other. We had long conversations about our political beliefs, our worldviews, and the possibilities for our future careers. We started learning more about how to communicate as partners, and how to have difficult conversations with each other.

That winter of 2019 we both survived the polar vortex. She had some time off from school, and my work at New Holland Brewing was canceled until the storm passed. It was a ton of fun going to a Panic at the Disco concert walking around the city while the wind beat us at every opportunity. Later that year I was accepted to the University of Michigan School of Public Health for graduate school.

Amber helped me move to Ann Arbor and we started seeing each other long distance. I would call her each night to hear about her day teaching at Lakes Elementary and share my experience in class. She would come out to visit me and I started visiting her in late September. One of my favorite experiences while at school was just being able to get on I-96, get out of Ann Arbor and visit Amber in Grand Rapids. I’d get filled with excitement as soon as the road signs switched from Lansing to Grand Rapids in the west direction.

COVID-19 hit and it meant initially I was back to living with my parents. Amber and I still kept up on our nightly phone calls. In April 2020, I moved into Amber’s house she shared with roommates. With a ton of uncertainty, Amber and I worked through the pandemic challenges together. We had tough conversations about living together and with others. I think here we built trust in one another. The world was changing, but we worked through it together.

Throughout my last year at Michigan, I visited Amber nearly every single weekend (except the ones where she had COVID). We would wear the masks her mom made us and venture out into the world. Mainly, we ended up wandering around stores looking for pandemic deals. My favorite time during the lockdowns was just being able to go on a walk and dream about the future with Amber.

I finished grad school and Amber and I were planning on getting our own apartment just to share between the two of us. It was a thrilling time! We passed the IKEA test, signed our lease, and moved all of our stuff in! (If you're keeping track, we're moving pros by now, no Dads, we're not for hire!) Since then I’ve never been more confident that I wanted Amber to be my partner forever. I started to save up for an engagement ring as soon as I got my first big job.

In June of 2022, we had the opportunity to travel to Europe together. It was an amazing two-week trip that took us from the UK, to rural Austria, and into Germany. Amber and I thrived navigating all of the different modes of transportation, trying amazing food, and falling deeper in love with each other. I'll never forget the cozy night we had in Edinburgh, having steak tare tare made tableside in the back room of a French restaurant. In our hotel room, we listened to the rain fall peacefully through the fog onto our window.

I proposed on October 22, 2022, in the same spot we had our first real conversation at GVSU. I’m so excited to spend the rest of my life with the most amazing person I’ve ever met. I love you Amber, and I can’t wait for the wedding!