The first time Dylan saw me I had just cut and died my hair (poorly) in my dorm room. I was running late to our first club meeting, and burst through the door, knocking down everything in my way until I found my desk. I actually bruised my hip in the process of loudly screeching and squeezing a desk into a preformed circle. I was certainly very sweaty, and likely, disturbingly out of breath from running across Virginia Tech's infamous drill field. Somehow, my display of early college procrastination and malaise did not scare the young, handsome Dylan Michaels off (luckily for me).

I remember thinking Dylan was really, really smart and being scared of saying something really, really dumb (I have a habit of this, okay?). I had a big crush on him, and boy did he not know about it! Eventually, I was visiting home over spring break and after hearing me talk about him way too much, my beautiful maid of honor, Alyssa Bardzilowski, took my phone and sent him a daring message. My heart was racing and my palms were sweaty when I saw what she wrote..... I couldn't believe it:

"Hi"

WOOAHHH that's a little forward, I thought to myself, still not letting go of the hope that Dylan would simply read my mind and ask me out without me having to give him even the smallest sign that I was interested in him (I am in fact, scared of cute boys).

Dylan opened my message and took WAY too long to respond (15 mins). Just as I was thinking, WOW, time to transfer schools and start my new life under a secret alias, he finally responded.

"Hey, What's up?"

Simple, confident, says a lot while doing a little; I knew I couldn't compete. I don't even remember how I responded as it was probably awkward and I likely blocked it out of my mind for mental sanity's sake. I do know that shooters shoot and I shot my shot (or I guess Alyssa shot for me... it takes a bow AND arrow guys!). The conversation ended with us agreeing to go out on a date when we got back to Tech. Dylan messaged me when we got back and we went out with friends for St. Patricks Day. I looked really really good that night, so now Dylan wants to marry me, I guess that's the luck of the Irish!

In all seriousness, the beginning of our relationship was marked with innocence, awkwardness, and a ton of tenderness. I feel like I have known Dylan my whole life. I didn't think it was possible to feel so comfortable around another person. Dylan proved me wrong immediately. Dylan was always a gentleman, always considerate, and never failed to make me safe, peaceful, happy, and loved.

I am so incredibly blessed to have met Dylan and grown into adulthood with him. I literally cannot picture the rest of my life without him at my side. Dylan has seen me be the worst and somehow, I always come away feeling my best. I only hope I have given him half as much love and care as he has given me.

Dylan- I love you SOOOO much and I am so excited to marry you. I can't wait to create our beautiful life together. I hope I didn't embarrass you too much with our origin story, but really, you were the slick one! I cherish you more than I could ever express in words, you are my other half!

Alright, enough gushiness, LET'S GET MARRIED!!!!!

One spring day, as the semester was winding down, I was sitting in the library, working on some terrible homework assignment, when I got a text from my friend Ajmal. It said, “I think I found some people that want to join our club”. I replied something like “Finally” or “thank God” and got back to my work. The next day, we had a meeting, and sure enough, we had a couple of new people. The one that caught my eye was Katie. I noticed her immediately, but I was too nervous to say anything – and since that was our last meeting of the year, we didn’t see each other again until next fall.

When we got back to school, our club was much more popular than it had been during the previous semester, to the point where we could start having gatherings and parties without it being too awkward. Kat and I started to see each other more during that time, and my interest in her was getting stronger. But it seemed like every time we got a chance to talk, something would go wrong. Once, we started talking at a party and everything was going great – until I had to excuse myself to go throw up in the bathroom.

Finally, during Spring Break that same year, I got a text from Kat that just said “Hi”. It took me forever to respond because I was so nervous. I was a bit worried she would get fed up and just block my number, and that would be that. I eventually typed out a response and hit send. I don’t even remember what I said, but it must have worked. We started texting each other every day, and when we got back to school Kat invited me to go to a St. Patrick’s Day party with her, and the rest is pretty much history!