"If you're going to have a story, have a big story, or none at all." --Joseph Campbell

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August, 2015

A USC graduate invites her friend to a rowdy college pool known infamously for its outdoor pool events. It is the last pool party that she will attend before becoming a first year teacher in the next couple of weeks. That friend (Bridesmaid Emily Bowers) showed up with her now husband and their fur baby in the mid-afternoon. The pool was becoming more and more crowded as Emily spoke to Katelyn...

Emily: "Hey, Kate. Do you mind if another person joins us? He's here helping his brother move into USC."

Katelyn: "Sure. No problem."

As the group of people hung out in the pool with shades on and drinks snuggled in coozies, a guy walked towards them. He was tall, dark, and handsome BUT his most admirable feature (at the time) was his man-bun. It was the curliest and longest hair that Katelyn had ever seen on a male specimen.

Katelyn (thought to herself): "This guy....with his man bun and his granola chacos...who is he?"

He got into the pool and Emily introduced him as Christopher Underwood, her childhood friend. Kate and Chris did the small talk thing for a while and they connected on a bunch of different topics/hobbies. Eventually, Kate left the pool with no promises of plans to her buddies for later. As the evening started to turn into night, she decided to venture out to a house party that was mentioned casually to Chris and Emily at the pool. The party was in full force when she arrived. Everyone was talking of the summer drawing to a close and what the future after college would look like. As she played games and talked to peers, Kate wondered whether or not Emily would show (and if Chris would be with her). Low and behold, she did not have to wait too long to see if this would be true ...in walked the man-bun not long after the question passed through her brain.

The two strangers spent most of that party hanging out with each other and when the night was over, phone numbers were exchanged.

Kate woke up the next morning to find that she had a text from Chris.

Chris: "Hey, this is Chris Underwood. Would you like to go on a run with me at the RiverWalk in West Columbia?"

Kate was impressed that he had remembered one of her favorite spots to jog in the mornings. She said yes and they went for a run. As the run came to an end, Chris extended the workout to running up the street for brunch. She thought this was very clever and brunch became their first ever date. At the end of their meal, Chris then asked Kate to join him at a wine tasting the following weekend in Spartanburg. She thought about it for a couple of days and then agreed.

Fast forward to October of 2015. Chris had been in Kate's life for a couple of months. She met the Underwood family and Chris was starting to introduce her as his girlfriend to people she didn't know. She would roll her eyes and tell him that she wasn't ready to formally commit. One day, Chris got tired of the eye rolling.

Chris: "What are we. Are you my girlfriend or...what? I need to know."

Kate: "Well, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...then it must be a duck."

And with that fall conversation, they were officially titled on all social medias and exclusively holding hands with just each other.

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Their love blossomed over the two years to follow. They did a lot of laughing, arguing, and traveling. They backpacked through multiple European countries, yoga-ed in Costa Rica, gambled in Vegas, hiked in Colorado, took the sailboat out on many occassions, road tripped/camped their way to Cape Cod (Massachusetts), lit lanterns for New Years in Thailand, and through every up and down....they always managed to come back together.

By July of 2018, Chris knew that he could not live his life without his adventure partner in crime. He proposed in the best Chris Underwood way by taking Katelyn and her family on a ferry to Martha's Vineyard.

They spent hours looking at the sites, eating fantastic food, and taking lots of photos. Towards the end of their day out in the vineyard, Chris had one more place to take the family. They got in a passenger van and ventured up toward the Aquinnah Cliffs, a beautiful overlook of the ocean and the Martha's Vineyard lighthouse. The plan was to take a family picture at the top of this magical place. As the camera snapped a few, Chris pulled out a travel journal that Katelyn had made for him. He asked her to read a letter. As her eyes were fixed on the page, she didn't notice him get down on a single knee. Within that letter contained a very important question and she, tearfully, said....

Hell. Yes.