Our story began during one of the most anticipated events of a high schooler’s year: homecoming. Homecoming is a time where a school rallies together to construct floats to parade in the city streets, cheer on their home football team with alumni, and ask that special someone to the homecoming dance. As a senior swimmer, my life was occupied with not only morning and afternoon practices, but also college applications. Before I knew it, the homecoming dance was right around the corner, and I had no date. Word had traveled fast among the swim team family that I did not have a date to the dance, and one day after practice, a teammate reached out to me to see if I still needed a date. She had a friend who wanted to attend the dance but needed someone to go with. I said yes and that is when I was first introduced to Brooke Chastain. To make the introductions, I agreed to meet Brooke at a football game a few weeks before homecoming with my teammate. When I met her for the first time at the game, I was awestruck by her beauty and intelligence. With the first meeting successful, I could not wait for the dance. We went to the dance in a group of other swimmers and friends and had an enjoyable time. Naturally, what happened next is what every high school couple does when things go well on the first couple of dates: radio silence. After nearly three months of radio silence, we started talking to each other. Soon after that, I showed up to her dance studio with a cookie cake to ask her to be my girlfriend.

After only seven months of dating, I started my college career at Xavier University. This move put 122 miles and nearly two hours between us. Since she is one year younger than me, she remained in Noblesville while I was in Cincinnati. The idea of a long distance relationship is nerve-racking, especially early-on in the relationship; however, this would be the first of four years in total that we would spend apart due to schooling. Fortunately, Brooke decided to attend Xavier University which allowed us to spend three years together instead of long distance. While at Xavier, we both supported each other in the activities we did on campus. She was my unconditional cheerleader for swim meets and was always a friendly face when getting back to campus from away meets. Brooke took dance classes for fun, and at the end of every semester, there was recital that I attended. I even took a class with her during my senior year. Unfortunately, we never nailed the dirty dancing lift.

Over the course of nearly seven years, I grew closer with Brooke every day and knew I wanted to make our adventure forever. After giving it much thought, the proposal was going to be special by taking her to a place that we had always talked about visiting: Colorado. During the summer of 2019, we flew into Denver and drove to Estes Park. We went hiking in the Rocky Mountain National Park, white water rafting on the Colorado River, and stayed at the historic Stanley Hotel. One night, I asked Brooke to take a walk with me in the gardens of the Stanley Hotel. We walked through the hedge maze on the hotel grounds inspired by The Shining and ended up at an overlook of Longs Peak. It was there where I asked Brooke to marry me, and without hesitation, she said… "YOU BROUGHT THAT ON A PLANE!?" and then she finally said, "YES!"