Skylar Elliott first meets Miles Johnson on her second day at The University of Alabama, August 9th, 2020.

It all starts when Skylar’s new roommates, Julia and Lindsey, meet Miles at the Honors Action registration.

“We met this guy…He gave us his dorm number. We were gonna go say hi—do you want to come with us?” Skylar decides to go.

They arrive at room 214S, and Miles opens the door.

“Hi, I’m Miles!” He says jovially. He introduces his roommate and long-time friend, Sam Gaines, and asks if Skylar is doing Honors Action. She announces that she will be participating in Camp 1831, and Sam echoes this.

Skylar meets Sam again in her Camp 1831 group, team Champions. Sam and she quickly become friends (along with fellow camper, Aiden Holt). Miles and Skylar are now part of a small friend group but are still little more than acquaintances. Their group hangs out frequently in the first two months of freshman year.

Beginning in early October, Skylar and Miles hatch a plan at the Fresh Foods lunch table: they are going to take Sam through every single Marvel movie, in release order. They begin that Thursday night with Iron Man.

“I’ll basically be Iron Man when I get my degree,” Skylar jokes. Miles, an aerospace engineering major looking to distinguish himself, inquires seriously about Skylar’s degree in metallurgical engineering. Skylar paints an exciting picture, and Miles arbitrarily decides to add it to his already full engineering course load. Skylar, of course, totally doesn’t believe him (and is still incredulous to this day). They continue going through the movies until Christmas break, now friends.

January rolls around, and Miles starts his metallurgy classes with Skylar, his only real friend in the major. Skylar, Miles, and Timothy Sullivan make a great trio and study together often. More often, though, Skylar and Miles study alone together. They keep watching Marvel movies with Sam, and the two even watch WandaVision together. She begins to suspect that Miles may have feelings for her in February, and her friends devise a scheme to find out. On February 27th, several friends, she and Miles drive up to Leeds for a double-feature drive-in movie. She has fun, but it takes a few days until she realizes just how sweet and caring he is.

How does Skylar realize this, you may ask? Well, she has to read some papers before a meeting with her new research professor, and Miles offers his dorm as a quiet reading spot for her. Later, he offers to sit by her while she struggles through the papers. Skylar finally recognizes that she has feelings for Miles on the night of March 3, 2021.

About two weeks go by, then Miles finally asks her on a date. The conversation goes a little something like this:

Miles begins. “So…I want to know where your head is at. About us.”

“Well, if you were to ask me a question, I would say yes.”

“Okay, then Skylar, would you go on a date with me?”

Needless to say, Skylar readily agrees, and their first date takes place on March 18th, 2021. They play a collaborative Harry Potter board game, see a Tom Holland movie, eat Hibachi, and go to Skylar’s family group fellowship night.

They become an official couple on April 4th, 2021 (Skylar’s birthday!), and the rest is pretty much history—except the engagement, that is.

I met Skylar on the 9th of August, the day after I moved into my dorm room; I remember her roommate coming to say hi, but I have no recollection of meeting Skylar that night (oops). However, over the next few months we became friends, and I joined her major.

In the Spring we began taking classes together, and our friendship deepened. After a very weird back-and-forth attitude from Skylar, she finally made up her mind about how she felt towards me, and we went on our first date on the 18th of March.

After a couple years of dating, which consisted of great conversations, lots of laughs, and time spent with each other, friends, and the Lord, it was time to think about popping the question. Having worked in the on-campus foundry and being experienced in 3D design, I figured I would make her engagement ring myself. I started designing it over Christmas break of our junior year and finished a rough design by the end of that May (It took over 20 hours of work). However, when I arrived back in Tuscaloosa, I knew I wouldn't have the time during senior year to actually pour the ring, so I took a family friend up on his jeweler recommendation. After some tweaks (more hours of work), the ring was ready to be poured. I had spent time in the on-campus woodshop crafting the ring box, and I provided the jeweler with the gold, including both my grandmothers' engagement rings.

Skylar was made to believe that her friend Alicia was getting engaged instead of her, so much so that Skylar volunteered to spend an entire Saturday making her a sign (which ended up being used anyway). Skylar got a little suspicious, but with a little improv help from the boys we kept Skylar in the dark until we were standing under the arch at Capitol Park and I got down on one knee.

I'm so excited to marry my best friend, and I'm ready to see where God takes us as He deepens our love for Him and for each other.