Vanessa and I met in 2015 at Fareway, where I was working in the produce department, about to graduate and head to DMACC. She had just started as a cashier during her junior year of high school. Back then our interactions were mostly small talk and making her the best root beer floats at the break table.

By summer 2017, we started connecting more. We talked about her wild senior spring break trip, met up on my 21st birthday at the Iowa State Fair, and I soon became her unofficial alcohol buyer in exchange for Sonic shakes.

She went to the University of Iowa (boo), I transferred to Iowa State (Go Cyclones), but we stayed close through texts and Snapchat. In summer 2018 we both returned to the Urbandale Fareway, and that’s when things began to shift for me. Late-night Sonic runs and long days working together made me realize I felt something more. By the end of the summer, a mutual coworker was getting married, and I needed a date. I asked Vanessa to come with me, and she said yes! Although, I have no illusions that she said yes just to spend time with me. It was also very helpful for my case that my brother was dating one of her best friends, who would be sharing a table with us. The night ended with an open bar and a pair of ruined Goodwill dress shoes you can ask her about.

That winter, I finally confessed my feelings at Applebee’s, after spending the whole dinner too nervous to eat. It did not go well. I quickly realized that I was firmly planted in the friend zone.

Nothing changed though, we jumped right back into talking constantly over SnapChat and FaceTime. I didn’t need to hide my feelings anymore and I could tell her how beautiful I thought she was, and that I was low key (high key) in love with her. Fast forward through about 18 months of persistence to July 2020, when during peak Covid boredom, she finally agreed to be my girlfriend.

We survived long-distance—me working in Boone and living in Ames, her finishing at Iowa. Trading visits, Iowa basketball games, and bar nights. Over the next four years we kept building a life together: she endured Jaworski family fishing trips, hunting season absences, and my questionable cooking experiments; I learned to “love” giving back rubs, Target trips, and even attending Hawkeye sporting events. In 2023 we bought our first home in Madrid, splitting our priorities between decor and power tools, and in early 2024 we added our black lab Nash to our family.

That summer we ring-shopped, and I secretly pieced together the perfect one. On November 9th, 2024, with one-year-old Nash beside me and Lindsay’s help, I proposed on the stage in Valley Junction.

Our story has been nearly a decade in the making. My feelings for Vanessa started in 2018 and haven’t stopped growing. She’s built a home and a life with me that balances our strengths, accepts our quirks, and makes every day something I want to share with her. Whether it’s doing the things she loves to do like going to TJ Maxx, the things I love to do like going fishing, and the things in life that neither of us love to do like watching the Chiefs win another Super Bowl. I can’t imagine going through this life without her by my side, laughing and adventuring together for many years to come.

M&V