Our story begins in what seems like pure coincidence, but we like to call it a miracle. In May of 2022, we both attended Chapter Officer Leadership Training (COLT) in Aurora, NE with our FFA chapters. At COLT, members are divided into groups by their office, and we were both vice presidents. In one of the breakout sessions, I turned around and saw this beautiful woman who I would come to know as Megan. She had a state speech sweatshirt on, and I approached her to "talk about speech".

Throughout the few days we were there, we would have side conversations or quick glances at each other. All of this led up to the final night of COLT where all the chapters present have a dance. I awkwardly made my way over to Megan, waited for a country song, and when one came on, asked her to swing dance. She informed me that she did not know how to swing dance. I had the brilliant idea to teach her. An hour and a few swing dances later, I was crazy about this girl. As we were leaving the dance together, I mustered up the courage to ask Megan for her phone number. She graciously conceded but I had left my flip phone in my room. Instead of asking her to write it down, I acted all cool and said I would memorize it. After she told me, I sprinted back to my room to plug it into my phone.

And we lived happily ever after, right? Wrong. Following COLT, we continued to text and call once in a while. I attended one of her softball games, where she hit a double and won the game for her team. Throughout the next couple of months, I asked her to date twice, to which I was turned down. She was a year older than me which wasn't exactly ideal- and who ever said cougar hunting was easy?

After months of just being friends and casually texting now and again, we reconnected at state FFA in 2023. We took a long walk around Pinnacle Bank Arena together and realized we might want to hang out more than just at school events.

On April 1, 2023, we went on our first date at The Boathouse in Yankton, SD. A couple of weeks later, Megan came to my prom and a couple of weeks after that, graduated high school. Megan was going to attend South Dakota State University, and we decided that we would give long-distance a try. Four hours apart, we traveled many miles on the weekends and holidays to see each other. I decided to go to SDSU after my graduation in May 2024.

In October 2024, we went on a trip with our friends to Colorado to go to a concert at Red Rocks. Little did Megan know that on the day before the concert, there was a surprise waiting for her at the top of a 2.2-mile hike at Lake Haiyaha. At one of the most beautiful locations in the country, my best friend Megan agreed to marry me. Now, our story continues.