This is the story of a woman who grew up hating bowling, made friends with a few bowlers, and swore she would NEVER date a bowler, and a man who grew up hating the beach, moved away from a state surrounded by beaches, only to find a girl who mandates a beach day with every vacation.

Kenny and I met, as one might be shocked to hear, in a bowling alley, and neither one of us were technically expected to be there that day. I was randomly invited to watch my friends bowl in their summer league, and Kenny was subbing for one of them that week. I believe our first real exchange was about Kenny's betting habits because, "what's another $20?" After watching Kenny bowl as though he did not remember he had just placed an extra $20 on this game, I was completely absorbed by his calm energy amidst what could only be described as a group mental break-down from the rest of his team.

A few weeks later, Kenny was the first to, "slide into my DMs." He was so suave when he reached out and said, "Hey it's Kenny," I simply couldn't resist. After chatting back and forth for a few weeks on Facebook messenger, he agreed to let me pick out some new clothes for him, and we had our first un-official date at the mall that we now live right next to.

A few weeks after that, we had our first OFFICIAL date in Detroit at a Cider in the City event, and later that same day, he asked me to be his girlfriend.

I first met Kenny's dad 1 or 2 weeks after we officially started dating as he had already planned to visit that week, and less than a month after that, Kenny met my entire extended family at Thanksgiving. Clearly we were taking things slow.

Our first mini-vacation was spent over a long weekend in Chicago where he officially met my best friend and now maid-of-honor. Our first BIG vacation together was our trip to Florida for me to get all of the tea about Kenny and meet some of his extended family and friends for the first time. This trip was where I learned first-hand that beach days do in fact have a time limit, even with the force of Kenny's mother, grandmother, and sister on my side. This was also the trip where Kenny secretly asked for his great-great-grandmother's engagement ring and also coincidentally the only trip where he has ever unpacked his own suitcase the same day that he arrived home.

After almost 2 years of dating, Kenny planned the most beautiful proposal, and got down on one knee in front of the same park bench where we had sat and read poetry to each other nearly a year and a half before. On August 8th, 2024, I became the luckiest girl in the entire world to have found the only man to ever exist that could convince me to sit in a cold bowling alley surrounded almost entirely by men for the rest of my life and not even mind.