Jake and I met at Simpson College in 2018. I went over to my friend Quinn's room to hang out on a Saturday night and saw Jake for the very first time. Now, if you know me, you know I am generally not a shy person, so it took all of 15 minutes before I went over and introduced myself. We sat and talked for a while during which Jake learned I was majoring in mathematics, he then decided to tell me about his economics class for the next half hour. Even though, I am not super into economics, I really enjoyed getting to know him that night and the rest is history.

We spent the first year of our relationship at Simpson College, spending every lunch together and every weekend. We always had stuff to talk about and I could tell very quickly that we were a good pair. The next two years would be a challenge though. I went off to the University of Iowa to get my masters while Jake finished his degree at Simpson. We spent the next two years traveling back and forth whenever one of us could make it. The distance was a challenge after spending so much time together, but even with the distance our relationship grew stronger.

Then on the day of our third anniversary, Jake got down on one knee. He surprised me that day at my parents house (where I was working and waiting for my rental house to be ready) with flowers and the promise of going out to my Aunts house to take pictures. We had recently got our second dog, Athena, and he wanted a picture of the four of us for my new rental house. Seeing as I was up at 5 A.M. with the puppy that morning, and he has always been great at surprising me, I didn't think twice about it. After I finished work, we went out to my Aunts farm (one of my favorite places to be) and took tons of photos! He then convinced me to walk down the dirt road I have spent hours riding mules on and walking dogs down when he dropped to one knee. I was SHOCKED! I quickly said yes!

Since that day, I have moved to Des Moines, where we are grateful to live in the same city again! We spend lots of time hiking with our two dogs, having dinner with friends, and sitting by the fire reading. We can't wait to get married and start this next chapter of our life.