Ryan and I met in college in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Ryan lived with our mutual friend, Nick, and I was over their apartment all the time to hang out, although I only hung out with Nick and never talked to Ryan! It wasn’t until Halloween 2012 of our junior year that we hung out for the first time as a group. However, we really didn’t talk again until the annual Saint Patrick’s Day parade in Scranton, a massive event that the whole city celebrates. That night we had the chance to talk and hang out one on one for the first time and realized how much we enjoy each other’s company. We quickly began to hang out every weekend. That summer, I found out I had to stay in Scranton for nursing school, and Ryan drove from New Jersey every weekend to see me. In September 2013, Ryan officially asked me to be his girlfriend, which I enthusiastically answered with “sure” (Ryan still gives me a hard time for my answer to this day). After graduation in 2014, Ryan went to Syracuse, New York for graduate school and I moved to Danville, Pennsylvania for my first nursing job. We spent two long years apart and decided that if we could survive a long-distance relationship that we would take the next step and move in together. In 2016, Ryan graduated from Syracuse University and got a job at Rutgers. I then left my job in Danville and we moved into the apartment that we live in now. We have made many happy memories these past five years of living together.

Ryan had initially wanted to propose at my aunt’s beach house with my all of my family present. However, that weekend was ruined by a hurricane and the trip was canceled. Ryan had tried to make other plans to propose but every plan seemed to get ruined by weather, sickness, etc. It wasn’t until I was on vacation with my mom that Ryan decided he was tired of waiting and was going to propose the day I got home. On October 20, 2019, as I was traveling back from California, Ryan was busy running around setting up the house up for the proposal. Little did he know, I was having a terrible day and was incredibly grumpy because I hate flying, got stuck in traffic, and the Eagles lost. Once I finally returned home, I walked in and there were flowers, candles, and champagne set up but I didn’t even notice! I just stormed in and said I needed to shower and get my pajamas on before I could eat the steak dinner Ryan made. Once I was showered and in my pajamas, I came out and Ryan said he wanted to talk to me before we ate. I was confused as to what he wanted to talk about and still had not a clue what was going on. Ryan began to say a bunch of beautiful things about me and our relationship, but I still wasn’t understanding what was happening and even asked him in the middle of the proposal, “what are you doing?” It wasn’t until he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him that it all hit me. The happy tears started to flow and of course I said yes! My terrible day quickly turned into the best day of my life.