Kara and I attended Penn State together. We both had the same friend group throughout our entire time at college. We always went to the same parties, attended all of the same events, and were in multiple group texts together. However, we never once talked to each other, not even a “hi” as we walked by each other. That all changed though on September 24th, 2022.

September 24th, 2022 was a great day for two reasons. Firstly, it was a Penn State home game against Central MI, which Penn State won! WE ARE! The second reason was because, even though I didn’t know it at that time, I had my first ever interaction with my future wife.

Kara and I were both at our normal tailgate with our normal friends. My buddy’s and I were doing our usual thing, roughhousing. During this roughhousing I ended up on the ground, at which point a buddy pulled off my boot, and threw it over an eight foot chain link fence that was alongside our tailgate. Me being me, I decided it would be easier to climb over the fence rather than to walk around it…best decision I’ve ever made. I jumped and started climbing, when next thing I knew, I felt somebody give me a push up and over the fence, causing me to land flat on my face on the other side. When I finally got myself stood up, I looked and saw Kara laughing her butt off at me, acting like it was the funniest thing she had ever seen. I knew then, at that moment, that she was the kinda girl I could really like. However, till I got myself back to the right side of the fence, she was gone and I didn’t talk to her for the rest of the day.

Fast forward to November 12th, which was once again a Penn State football tailgate. I tailgated all day, hoping to find Kara so I could try and talk to her again. The day went on and I never found her, so my friends and I decided to go back to the Beef Sheep barns, which is where I had lived before I “retired” from college. My friends and I were all hanging out, when out of one of the back rooms, came Kara who looked like she had just woken up out of hibernation. Apparently, Kara and a few of her friends had gone back to Beef Sheep where Kara decided to take a nap, where her friends then tried to wake her up with no success and then chose to go home while she continued to sleep. When Kara woke up she realized she had no ride back to her apartment so, she asked myself and a few of the Beef Sheep residents to take her back to her apartment. Obviously I said yes. We all went back, hung out, I carved a pumpkin (which rotted on her porch for the next 6 months), and finally had the chance to talk to Kara again, allowing me to realize she was not into me whatsoever.

I wasn’t gonna give up though, so throughout the next week I kept trying to text her, always with the same response…silence. Finally, one day during deer season I posted a stupid joke with a picture of a deer on my Snapchat story, and Kara replied to it saying how it was really funny. GAME ON! We continued to talk the rest of the week and that next weekend she mentioned that all of our friends were getting together at Penn State and she invited me up. I had never been more excited to make the two and a half hour drive to college. A lot went on that evening, our friends and us were all over Penn State, but finally when things slowed down, I invited Kara up to the roof of the Beef Sheep barns, where we sat and talked, and began falling in love with each other.

After that night, the rest was history. We said we loved each other on New Years, at 12:14 in the morning. I asked her to be my girlfriend a few minutes after that (never ask a girl to be your girlfriend on their birthday…big mistake). A year and a half later, on July 3rd, 2024 I drove to the Stultz ranch with an engagement ring in my pocket. I was going to ask my best friend to marry me. Kara did not make it very easy on me. All I had to do was get her alone, but she would not let that happen. Hudson, our nephew, has her wrapped around her finger and insisted on playing tractors and catching lightning bugs all night. After a little bit of scheming with her mother, I got Kara into the barn with just myself, where I got down on my knee, and she said yes (after punching me quite hard out of excitement). And the best is yet to come, when we stand in front of all of our friends and loved ones and say “I do”, starting our amazing life together. All because she threw me over a fence.