We were at Luke's house for Nu Lamb fall party at the beginning of sophomore year, and I ended up spending most of my time outside. There were a couple of guys trying to start a fire, and it just wasn't working, so I gave some tips (thanks Dad's survival training) and pretty soon the fire was started. (Freddy's version: some girl came up and started giving tips, and it was annoying, but they worked) I had met a few of them before, but was then introduced to Freddy who had been helping with the fire too, and we started talking. Pretty soon we realized we had a lot in common and spent most of the night outside by the fire having a conversation. Later in the year we kept ending up at the same things, and one night he came up to me in one of the dorms. We ended up having a conversation for an hour just standing in the hall by a water fountain and after that we began intentionally spending more time together. Within a month we were dating and falling for each other just as quickly.

While Freddy was in France we made plans to go snowshoeing in Acadia National Park over spring break with a couple of friends. We left, and after spending a night in Lancaster we headed to Portland, ME. We had delicious donuts the next morning and finished out the second leg of the 14 hour drive, stopping for lunch with friends in Belfast, and arriving in Bar Harbor as the sun set. Because it was getting late, I asked if we could head to the airbnb, check in, and start out on hikes the next day. Freddy said that he really wanted to get into the park and check out one trail he didn't think we would have time to do later in the week. We drove down, parked slightly illegally, and started out along Otter Cliffs. It was breathtaking. There was 10 inches of new snow on the trees, and the ocean was a deep grey contrasting with the bright pink and orange of the sunset. We hiked along until we were at thunder hole. I said that we should probably be headed back because we were loosing light. Freddy said that was good idea...then kept walking. Finally we turned around and started to head back. He asked if we could walk down by the rocks, so, begrudgingly, I said yes. I was getting nervous about the cliff because the snow was so deep. We got to the edge of the rocks and asked Kristoff and Dave if they would take a picture of us. We took a few pictures, and I was wondering when we were gonna head back when Freddy grabbed my hand and his voice dropped to nearly a whisper as he said "hey". I knew something was up then, and the next thing I remember is seeing him on one knee asking if I would marry him. It took me a minute to say yes because I was so surprised and excited! We could see the spot where his parents had gotten engaged and hiked there later in the week. It was perfect.