I can still recall exactly how it all started out…

I woke up in my 80 degree college dorm at Western Illinois, sweating as I was slightly hungover from a night out. I checked my phone to a message and saw I had a message on Bumble from Morgan. It read, “If you were a vegetable, you’d be cute-cumber”. Due to my lack of knowledge in flirtatious puns, I instantly kicked off my sheets and ran down the hall to my friend, Marty’s, dorm. I showed him the message and his instantly knew the correct response.

“If you were a fruit, you’d be a fine-apple…”

Those two messages jump started Morgan and I’s relationship for the years to come, and I have Marty to partially thank for that.

The next day, Marty and I attended a psychology class together and unbeknownst to me, Morgan was in the same class. Later on that evening, Morgan told me we had that class together and we decided to start sitting next to each other. Each day after class, we’d walk with each other on campus and slowly grew closer. We finally began dating on September 12, 2018. Eventually, we met each others’ family and our friends. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous for Morgan to meet my friends, but thankfully she fit right in.

Years flew by until we graduated from WIU in Spring of 2020. Morgan went on to live on her own as a music therapist in Schaumburg while I stayed at home until I was hired as a police officer in 2021. In 2022, we bought our first home in Lockport and welcomed our first son in July of 2022 - a 70 pound Golden Retriever named Jules. Things were slowing falling into place and I knew I was going to marry her.

In July of 2023, I asked Morgan’s father for his blessing, and he approved. On July 10th at 5:50 AM in Mount Rainier National Park, I proposed to Morgan. Thankfully, she said yes and already started wedding planning by 6:00 AM.

We’re both excited for this new chapter in our lives and can’t wait for what the future holds!