This is from my (Cooper's) point of view, be warned, it is a lot, but pretty comprehensive if you love little details.

Ok, so I remember it all kicked off when I was on my visit to Truman State, and my Dad had me all dressed up in a suit for 'appearances' or whatever. Coach Schwegler was bringing me around campus, showing off the different buildings and giving me the whole rundown on what life was like at Truman. We were walking in Pershing when I first saw Kirsten from down the hallway, and she immediately got my attention. I mean she was (don't get it twisted, she still IS, but I am telling the story in past tense thoughts / emotions) a total DIME PIECE. I don't remember if we even had an exchange or anything, just that she was the only girl to ever make me turn my head and watch her as she walked away. Schweg obviously noticed my jaw to the floor and hastily mentioned to me that she was 'on the team' ( I think he had bachelor's in business so he was familiar with marketing a pitch). To this day, I don't believe her visiting the building during my visit was intentional, but I am so thankful that she did because I was already more than obliged to go to Truman for my undergrad - seeing her just made the decision even easier.

From that point forward, literally nothing happened for my entire freshman year ( I know, I know; I got game). If I remember correctly, she had thought that I didn't really mess with her like that, and frankly at the time, I didn't! Now that sounds incriminating, but coming out of high school I was fairly sheltered in my views and morals, and all it took was to hear her make a joke about drinking that made me write her off in my oh-so 'disciplined' mind. I still thought she was drop dead gorgeous, but naively believed that our lifestyles (I had already wrongly made the decision of her lifestyle after one joke that I misinterpreted) wouldn't mesh well together. In classic Cooper fashion, I couldn't have been further from the reality that I had concocted in my brain, and I was unknowingly waiting to find out.

Fast forward fairly deep into my second semester of freshman year, I was injured for the remainder of my indoor and outdoor season, and practicing a fair amount of self pity. I was always 50% ready to run, and taking that preparation and trying to compete at 100%, only pushing back my injury further. I had went with the team to Drake in Des Moines, Iowa, and had once again hurt myself further after believing I was fit to run and ended up with my worst 100m dash in personal history. I was on whatever the opposite of cloud nine was, and apparently showing it pretty effectively too, because all of sudden after our races, Kirsten came to sit down with me on the bleachers in my mopey state. We started off with just some border line small talk - the crappy weather, how our races went, whatever we were hoping to eat afterwards, and it eventually turned into some more mutual interests we had about sports, music, and other randomly relevant topics at the time. I started realizing that maybe I judged the book by the cover a bit too fast (who could've guessed?) because we seemed to click well and be able to chat as if we had been friends for a while. That change of heart also quite conveniently green lit the 'ok she's cleared for dating' sensor that I had previously marked red the whole year - just fyi. I hadn't enjoyed a conversation with someone so much as I had with her in a while, and I am completely proud to say that by the time I was on the bus ride home, texting her some songs I thought she should listen to, I was straight up falling dawg.

Now she on the other was not straight up falling, as she had only seen it as a friendly conversation to pass some time during a crappy meet. We went home over Easter break and I was already telling my sister about this girl I started 'talking' to, and I went over my painstaking dramatics of what song I should send her or if it was weird that she hadn't texted me back. In Kirsten's mind at the time, I don't believe I was taking up much mental real estate as supposed new acquaintance, while she was like the 20 million dollar mansions you'd see on TV, in mine. This dynamic persisted for the next week, as I was trying to find subtle ways to ask this girl out further, while simultaneously trying to preserve my pride and mitigate the risk of her crushing my soul with a 'no'.

The first catalyst in our relationship was actually from the least relationship catalyzing event you could think of, which was a visitation we both went to. Afterwards, we went out bowling with Grace, and I, in all my shmoozey gimmicks of grandeur, bowled 4 strikes in a row (with celebrations following shortly after). I say this was the moment she fell in love with me too (because how could you not?), but believe it or not, she actually didn't and only wildly (I hope) enjoyed the night afterwards. I had never had so much fun just being an absolute goof dork with someone like her, and knew that I wanted to hang out another day.

The next day, she said she was going garage sale shopping, and I smartly decided that I was suddenly a garage sale enthusiast as well - happy to tag along. I got to get a brief glimpse into our future as we purchased gizmos and trinkets to add to her already wonderfully decorated house. The garage sale fever even got to me, as I decided I'd buy a cardigan to perhaps wear in the future, and totally not to impress her ( I still to this day have never worn a cardigan ). I got to learn further about Kirsten and her life, as we walked around thousand hills park, and I learned about the coveted iced raspberry sweet tea from sonic that she so loves . The perfect day was only cut short due to my own blunder ( surprise again ) as I had to take a dump and I was not yet confident enough that I wouldn't scare her away with my consistent bowel movements.

The following weekdays were packed full of me rushing (neglecting) homework, scarfing down the terrible dining hall food, and showering in my little dorm prison bathroom in order to maximize the time I could spend with Kirsten each night. By then I was so sure she liked me, but also just equally as sure that I was crazy and a fool for some reason. We stayed up until 3 am on multiple occasions, just talking to each other about everything; my confidence growing that she liked me every night because no way average friends do this right? Still, I had not asked her out, partially because that meant I had to kiss her, and I was absolutely terrified because dawg I didn't have that much experience. I had finally built up my courage after the entire Wednesday evening, to finally ask her, and she let me down with the softest 'no' in history. She explained that it was too short of time between us hanging out and that "five days isn't enough time" or something completely crazy of that sort (Yes I had asked her out after only hanging out within five days - visitation (Friday), garage sales (Saturday), Sunday was no contact (I couldn't seem that desperate), Monday- Wednesday we hung out each night). I was weirdly unaffected and took it as a good sign, because her 'no' was clarified as a 'not yet', and I just wasn't aware of how these dating ropes worked now adays.

For the sake of keeping it short and sweet ( within 5 pages ), I decided waiting until the next week to ask her out again and got hit with the exact same answer. I then smartly waited for two or so weeks, and when we were back in Kansas City, doing literally everything that a dating couple would do for those weeks, asked her once more. Now considering that you're on this website (and have just maybe read to the end of this) she said yes on May 15th, and the rest is history that I could publish in the form of a formidable chapter book.