Aside from all of the baby pictures and stories about us growing up, my first memory of Cassidy was in 8th grade. My family was at my grandparents house, which was only a few houses away from hers, and decided to go walk over to their house to surprise them. As my parents were talking to her parents in their living room, her mom yelled “Cassidy! Justin Bieber is here!”. Cassidy comes running out of her room a few minutes later with her hair and make up done expecting to see Justin Bieber standing in her living room, only to find me standing there with a bright red face and an awkward smile. I had the biggest crush on her from that day forward.

Fast forward to 2018, my mom and I were driving back up to Massachusetts Maritime Academy and decided to stop in New York for the night. We realized Mrs. Michelle was there as well. We decided to meet up with her after dinner, she spent the whole night convincing me to take Cassidy on a date, even though i didn’t need much convincing. A few months later, I ran into her mom again at a party my grandpa was having. She once again brought up going on a date with Cassidy. I knew this time I was going to try.

On March 23, 2018, Cassidy posted a picture of her dog on social media. I decided this was my best chance to start talking to her. Despite it being 10:30 in the morning, some liquid courage gave me confidence I needed to possibly get rejected. I sent her a message saying “your dog is so cute”. She responded almost right away with “You’re the hottest and funniest guy ever, marry me”, and the rest is history. Okay, she didn’t actually say that. But she really did respond and I was shocked. I ended up giving Cassidy my phone number the next day and we have talked everyday since that moment.

In May of 2018 Cassidy flew to Massachusetts because Texas A&M was borrowing my schools ship for the summer. Our parents came up with a plan for me to pick Cassidy up from the airport, although we were already talking for a few months. I drive to Rhode Island’s airport and nervously waited for Cassidy to walk through the sliding doors. After waiting around for a few hours, I found out she was just waking up… in Louisiana. I somehow mixed the dates up. I was flying home the next day for a long weekend and we barely missed each other. When I got back to Massachusetts, we were able to hangout twice before the ship left.

I consider our first date to be on July 24th, 2018. Cassidy just got back to Massachusetts after going on her summer cruise. I decided I wanted to try to impress her by bringing her to one of the coolest spots in Cape Cod. It is this hidden cliff that overlooks a beach where you can look across Cape Cod Bay. She didn’t think driving a white cargo van to the middle of nowhere and then walking through the woods with a guy you barely know as romantic as I did. We watched the sunset over the bay and got to know each other. 18 days after I kidnapped her in the white van, Cassidy texted me “I need a ring”. On August 18, 2021, I finally gave her a ring.

I am beyond grateful to be able to spend the rest of life with such a loyal, selfless, and hard working woman. I cannot wait to see my beautiful bride walk down the aisle.