Mitch and I have known each other our whole lives. People don't believe me when I say this, but I truly don't know when or how Mitch and I met. I'm assuming we were infants and our parents were showing off their new babies to each other. It is a special thing to know that I will live every year of my life knowing Mitchell Budke.

As kids, we were around each other fairly frequently. With our parents as friends, we often socialized in the same friend group. It was always Aidan Eidman, Cooper Schroer, Mitch Budke, and Laura Koch. I never minded being the only girl in the group, and I especially don't mind it now as it led me to some of my lifelong friends and of course my future husband. In junior high, the four of us high jumped together in track. It was a really special time in my life as I felt I was able to reconnect with my childhood friends. The next year, I started high school and it seemed the connection was lost again. The first day of sophomore year of high school, I walked into second period Spanish and there sat Mitchell with an open seat right next to him. I don't think I will ever forget how excited I was to see him. It was so nice to have a friend in the class that I knew would make it a fun and enjoyable experience. Within just a few days of school, it felt like we had clicked and started back where we had left off in our friendship. Spanish class, as well as roles in the school musical Aladdin, allowed us to get to know each other even better. According to my mom, our sword fighting in the musical was "very flirtatious". It became clear to me right around the time of the musical that I had a massive crush on Mitchell Budke.

Thankfully, he liked me too! It was only fitting that he ask me out in Spanish class, December 9, 2019. Although not the most romantic, we were 15 years old and I thought it was just absolutely perfect. Dating didn't involve much in the beginning as neither of us could legally drive. Unfortunately, Covid-19 put quite a damper on the beginning of our relationship and there was a period of time we didn't see each other for 6 weeks.

We continued to date throughout highschool and truly just fell in love with each other. As I moved on to college, our relationship didn't falter one bit. We knew we would marry one another some day! I went on to K-State as he finished his senior year of high school.

A few days before our 3rd anniversary, Mitch was in a bad accident with a firework, as most of you may know. The days and months following the accident were extremely hard physically for him and emotionally for everyone involved. However, it did not challenge our relationship at all. Everything happens for a reason, and I believe one of the reasons for the accident is how close it brought us to one another. The amount of love we have for one another truly shone through during the trials Mitch faced.

The accident did lead to a hard year of being apart. After lots of consideration, I decided to transfer schools from K-State to Emporia State University, where Mitch attends. Although a proposal was not one of my reasons for moving, it was an exciting bonus!

Mitch and I have talked about marriage for a very long time. We decided about a year into our relationship that this was it. After moving, it brought up a lot more discussion between us as to when we might want to get married, and we decided "Why wait?" So long story short, I knew the proposal was coming.

January 28, 2024 Mitch proposed to me with the most beautiful ring. The proposal happened on a Sunday. That morning we had gone to church together and then he took me to a very nice brunch afterwards. We spent the afternoon watching a movie at my house. After the movie, he got out his laptop and connected it to my TV. I was completely clueless and thought he was working on homework. All of a sudden a slideshow book showed up on the screen labeled "Our Story So Far." At that moment I knew this was it! We spent around 30 minutes going through the digital scrapbook he had made. I will admit that I cried a lot. The amount of detail he added was incredible and extremely touching. He said he spent a total of around 16 hours working on it. The last page of the book said the words, "Now We're Ready For the Next Step." At that moment, he got down on one knee, said a bunch of loving words that I don't remember, and proposed! I wish I remember more of the actual proposal, but I was sobbing and just saying the word "yes" over and over. Eventually, I did look at the ring! It's gorgeous by the way and he picked it out all by himself!

6 months of engagement is long enough! We are ready to get married this July! We are very excited for our special day, but especially for our marriage together. It has been a blessing to grow up together, but I am even more thankful that we get to spend the rest of our lives together. God has blessed us with each other!