Despite living only ten minutes away from one another, Hannah and I didn’t meet until she pledged our co-ed business fraternity, Alpha Kappa Psi. Our first interaction was very awkward. As part of the pledging process, the inductees must interview all of Executive Board, which included me at the time. We found nothing in common after 30 minutes and I’m pretty sure we ended up talking about the Yankees and I thought Hannah was a sports fan, and if you know her, that’s definitely not the case.

Everything changed when one of my friends, Shannon, ironically became Hannah’s big. Over the next year or so, our friend groups merged and we hung out more. I started developing feelings for her as we worked together on brotherhood events, in spite of Shannon’s not-so-subtle coaxing. After one football game, Hannah was supposed to drive me home since I lived on the opposite side of campus. However, her car battery died and I ended up spending several hours at her apartment before she could finally take me home. After talking for several hours, I started thinking she could be the one.

Fast forward a couple weeks later, it was nearing Thanksgiving and I was planning on taking the next step. After playing phone tag while I drove down I75 for break, we finally connected later that night and I asked her out to dinner. She said let’s do lunch…

I wasn’t really sure what Justin had to call me so urgently about, surely any gossip he needed to share could’ve waited or been shared over text. Turns out he was creating the gossip by asking me out on a date! I panicked and deferred him to lunch because the last thing I wanted to do was skip family dinner at the expense of me answering a bunch of questions about the mystery boy who was taking me out. A couple days later, it was time for the big date. I was still just as nervous as the day he asked me out and on top of it all I had to scrounge up a half suitable outfit from my limited wardrobe packed for Thanksgiving break. Justin picked me up and we were off to Brio where I ordered a flatbread that I ate all of 2 bites of because I was so nervous. I don’t remember much of our conversation, but I do remember A LOT of anecdotes about Justin’s experiences at sleep away camp and that his sister had a boyfriend who lived in Scotland, which I thought was a joke until he told me they’d been dating around 2 years.

Before I knew it the date had ended, and I was back home and driving to pick up my best friend, Julia, to give her the instant replay. I gave her all the details and we spent an eternity crafting a simple follow up text to send to Justin to let him know I had a good time and would be interested in going out again. Turns out the feeling was mutual, and we scheduled our second date for the following week.

The thing that’s strange about dating your friend is that on one night you’re friends studying at the library together, but the next night he’s cooking you dinner. On our third official date, Justin resolved that issue and asked me to be his girlfriend. From there, the rest was history. We finished out the school year, Justin graduated, and he somehow convinced me to go on a trip to Europe with him that summer. That next year started the “long distance” phase of our relationship, and by long distance I mean a grueling 5-hour drive apart while I finished my last year of school and Justin started his full-time job. Needless to say, we survived and decided that post-graduation I would move up to Boston and Justin would meet me there the following year. Given that I graduated in 2020, circumstances changed, and I did not move until the following year in which we decided Justin would come too. As we “shipped up” to Boston, we were excited and nervous about the big step we were taking together.

After over a year of living together and Justin’s nonstop begging, it was time to start forming our own little family…with a dog. At this point Justin and I had everything we wanted, an apartment with central air conditioning, a great city with lots to explore, and Ellie. I however, felt there was still one ~sparkly~ thing missing.

After living together for 2 years, seeing all my cousins get engaged/married, and then raising a puppy together, I figured the time was right to officially tie the knot. Our 5-year anniversary was approaching on November 20th and I knew she was expecting me to ask in the near future, probably that night, so naturally I targeted November 19th to erase any suspicion. Leading up to the proposal, I kept laying hints at the possibility of proposing the night of our anniversary: “Are you going to get your nails done?” “Make sure to pack nice dresses for when we fly to Florida for Thanksgiving break.” "You should take off work the day of our anniversary."

I picked up the ring the night before and practiced all night long of how I was going to ask. That Sunday afternoon I picked her up under the pretense that we were going to watch the sunset with Taylor and Matt with some wine and cheese. Surprise, surprise… Taylor and Matt were “late” so we set up without them. As sunset approached, I was sweating bullets, both literally and figuratively (hence why we now live in Boston). The secret photographer gave me the cue that the lightning was perfect. So on that Sunday afternoon, on the levee overlooking the Everglades at sunset, I got down on a knee and asked Hannah to marry me. And the rest is history!