If I go all the way back to the beginning to when I first Emily, that would bring me back to the summer of 2021 when Emily was an intern at CHS and I was in my second full year as a full-time employee. I was in the office by myself one summer day and Emily had come in on her own. Maybe it was to pick up something, I don't recall exactly, but she was having trouble with her workstation and she asked if I could help her. Although I had no idea what I was doing, I jumped up from my desk and said I could help. I went over to her desk, climbed underneath to check the cables, and somehow got it working. I proceeded to go on with my day from there, but I do recall thinking as I went back to my desk that she was pretty cute. :)

Jump forward a few months to the next spring, I started to get to know Emily more as we were spending more time together in the office and talking more outside of work. After all, she did sit just six feet away from me in the office. Throughout the summer and into the fall, we went to a Twins game together, watched some football (where I eventually was outed to my parents that I was taking an interest in someone after a failed picture moment by my sister, Rose...thanks Rose), she came to a bowling tournament of mine, and we started having many late night conversations together. It was at that point I started to realize that Emily felt more special to me than anyone else before, because I could talk to her for hours and not get tired of it.

By the beginning of the winter of 2022, I finally got brave and confessed after all that time my higher interest in her, and while it took much convincing, she agreed to go out on a date with me! Our first date was to the Science Museum of Minnesota, where my practical mind figured I would have many conversation points to talk to her about. I showed off my goofy nature to her, played with the magnetic blocks (I got some funny looks from her, I don't know why haha), played all the sports games in the new sports science exhibit, and talked about velociraptors. I got plenty of eyerolls, but I could tell she was very amused and I was just being me. We finished up the date by grabbing Chipotle together and eating it at her place. As I was heading out the door and putting my jacket on, I turned to her and asked "So do I get a second date?", and much to my pleasure, she gave me a big smile and said yes.

For our second date, we went bowling, as per her suggestion. As I've said to her many times, but this only being the first of many, I have only one speed when it comes to bowling, and it's full speed. I put my skills on display for her and tried to teach her a thing or two, but it turns out I'm not that great of a bowling coach. Whoops. Nevertheless, we had a great time together, and started getting a bit closer to each other.

By our third date, we opted for the "cozy night in with a movie" kind of date where we watched each other's favorite movie. She chose The Parent Trap (the Lindsey Lohan version) and I chose Airplane. We watched my movie first, and I once again got some good eyerolls as I laughed hard at the slapstick humor of Airplane. It must've done the trick, because after the movie finished, she turned to me and kissed me! How about that? It was on that night after we watched The Parent Trap that I asked her to be my girlfriend, and she said YES. :)

Moving onto Valentine's Day, I came over to her place early in the morning before work to drop off the ingredients to make Chicken Parmesan and that evening I made her that for dinner. I always say this to her when I recall that night, but when we were sitting at the table that evening, she showed me a smile I had never seen from her before. I could tell I had totally swept her off her feet and she was smitten. It was at that point I wanted to tell her that I love her, but thought she may think I was crazy for saying so, and saying that so early in our relationship. When I think about it though, we had already known each other for so long that what looks like barely 2 months of dating on the surface was already a process that had been going on for several months. So, two weeks later, I told her that I love her, and much to my pleasure, she repeated it about as fast as it came out of my mouth.

Now, by the time June rolled around, we had been dating 5 months and I had made up my mind that she was my person, and I wanted to marry her. We were starting to have conversations where we would say how we could see why our parents got engaged so quickly after dating, because, man, when you feel it, you just know it. I started to allude to my mom that this was my feeling while we were at a Twins game on Mother's Day about a month before. I think that in itself was a Mother's Day present to my mom to hear those words. So it went then, by the beginning of June, I decided I wanted to marry her.

I decided on the evening of June 5th that I would go and look at rings the next day, but not necessarily commit to buying something right away. The next day, I went to the store and started looking...and then bought a ring right there on the spot. From there, I figured, well, I have the ring and I want to give it to her. So, the next day, I brought the ring with me to work with the intention of going to her place afterwards to propose. There she was, sitting six feet away from me in the office, completely unaware that I had a ring in my backpack with me that whole day. So when we were finally done for the day, I went over to her place, and proposed to her right there in her living room, taking the ring out of my backpack. In classic Jaxon fashion, I pulled a movie quote in my proposal, and I pulled from When Harry Met Sally, "When you realize that you want to spend the rest of your life with someone, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible". With that, she said YES. :)

To my Emily - I love you, my dear, the love of my life, my future wife, and my future Mrs. Helland.