David and I met in September of 2011, shortly after starting our freshman year at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. We had mutual friends, and were both invited to hang out one weekend. A couple of nights after we first met, I got a friend request on Facebook from David, followed shortly by a message discretely asking for my number. From there, we went to multiple date parties together throughout our first semester of college. We had a lot of fun together that semester, but for some reason it just wasn’t our time. We went our separate ways most of college and as David says “practiced” dating other people for when we decided to come back into each other’s lives. Four years later, we ran into each other at a party. The next day, David texted me and we have talked every single day since. We officially started dating on August 6, 2015. The first year of our relationship we both lived in Fayetteville. I was still in nursing school and he was working as a PT tech. Once I graduated nursing school, I made the hardest decision I have ever had to make and decided to move back home to Memphis to pursue my career as a neonatal ICU nurse. Since then, we have been long distance. A year after I moved to Memphis, David moved to Bolivar, MO to go to school to become a physical therapist. Though living five hours away from each other has been challenging at times, it has only made our relationship stronger.

Almost exactly 3 years and 3 months into our relationship, David had my good friend Mary Cullen ask me to have a "girl's day" after what she told me was a difficult week at work. We went shopping, got our nails done, and had lunch, things that we do together regularly. I asked David earlier in the week if I could come see him in Bolivar that weekend. He convinced me that he had an extremely busy upcoming week in school and that I should probably stay home in Memphis. I was a little disappointed, but didn't think anything of it. Mary Cullen had told me that we needed to do something fun that night and go downtown for drinks and dinner. It didn't take much convincing for me to agree, so we started thinking of places we could go. Mary Cullen told me that one of her coworkers had told her about this new bar (that doesn't exist) close to the old bridge and that we should have drinks there and watch the sunset before we go to dinner. As the day went on, I could tell she was getting increasingly stressed out about getting downtown in time for the sunset. Confused, I told her that it wasn't that big of a deal if we missed the sunset, then proceeded to take my time in every store we went into. Somehow, Mary Cullen convinced me to finish up my shopping and we headed downtown towards the "new bar" just in time for sunset. We pulled into the parking lot for Big River Crossing which is not a "new bar," but a new walking bridge that goes across the Mississippi River from Tennessee to Arkansas. Once we parked she told me to get out of the car. I was extremely confused and a little freaked out. We started walking towards the bridge. I saw David standing there in the middle of the bridge and at that point she told me to keep walking alone. I met David on the bridge and he took me to the Tennessee/ Arkansas state line where he asked me to marry him at sunset. That moment is a complete blur, but I know it was one of the happiest moments of my life. When David and I came off the bridge, our parents were there waiting for us. It was the most perfect day.