I met Jacob in kindergarten when his mom and brother visited some of the classrooms since he would join us in the fall. Once he joined the public school, we were placed with the same teacher on occasion. I even have a Christmas ornament for every year of school we were in the same class!

At the beginning of middle school, I developed a crush on Jacob that would come and go. I told my female classmates anything under the sun that would make them not like him too. However, I only spoke with Jacob if I had to.

Unfortunately, during Freshman year, our friendship was still pretty distant until we both went on the choir trip to Tennessee together. The choir trip was tons of fun! I even got Jacob to line dance with me on the trip(Yes, I have a video of that). The choir trip made me realize Jacob was a great friend.

Furthermore, in sophomore year I convinced Jacob to have the same high school schedule as me (so I could copy off of him!). It didn't take much convincing on my part, fortunately! Sadly, our sophomore year got cut short by COVID. Jacob came over to my house once or twice between that time to hang out. We went as far as measuring out 6 feet apart circles in my driveway and planning trips to take on our senior year with friends.

At the beginning of Junior year, we were some of the first people in our school to quarantine; however, we convinced our parents to let us do quarantine school together for those two weeks. That's when I started to fall head over heels for Jacob. We would do "class" (play among us) in his office. Then after class, we went downstairs and started to watch The Pirates of the Caribbean movie series. One night after we finished watching a show I asked Jacob repeatedly if there was something he'd like to ask me until he finally asked me to be his girlfriend.

After that, we hung out every chance we got. We did everything from high school activities to camping together. We soaked up all the time we could together until I had to leave that August to run for Hawkeye.

The distance this past year has not been easy, but we managed to see each other sometimes with the help of family. During that time I pestered Jacob once again about asking me a certain question. I even made him a calendar with all the possible dates he could ask me on as a joke. The distance was getting to us so we planned a trip to Galena in April of 2023. He got to my apartment that Friday night very late and gave me Lego flowers; however, since it was so late I didn't remember it and was surprised again in the morning when I saw them. That Saturday morning we traveled to Galena. We built the Lego flowers he got me on Staci's table and then went downtown to walk around like we always do when we visit. Staci had to leave and go out with a friend so Jacob said we should go for a walk and that's when he brought me to the waterfalls. He then asked me to be his wife! I was so excited I passed out after the fact and he had to tell me all over again!

Registry