I grew up in the small village of Pinckney, Michigan with my parents and older brother. I graduated from Pinckney High School where I developed a fondness for playing tennis. One of my first jobs was at Aquatic Adventures of MI, LLC, a small Scuba Diving company out of Brighton. I worked there for six years and developed a deep love of Scuba Diving and all things aquatic. I graduated from Eastern Michigan University in 2012 and worked as a Registered Nurse for the next 10 years. I went back to school for a Master’s Degree in Nursing Informatics in 2020. Upon completing this degree, I moved from Michigan to Ohio for my first Informatics position. I ended up meeting Brian in February 2023. We matched on two different dating apps within 24 hours, so I thought I should probably at least say hello. Ohio was also where I met Betsy Lay, my best friend, and officiant for our wedding. I loved my hospital, friends, and coworkers in Ohio, but at the end of 2023 it was time for a job change. I was offered an incredible opportunity with HCA Healthcare, based in Nashville, as a consulting product analyst for the Meditech Expanse program. We moved to Nashville in February 2024 and got engaged on March 14, 2024. Now, here we are.

I grew up in the village of Coulterville, Illinois with my parents. I graduated from Coulterville High School where I developed a love for guitar playing, weight lifting, and drawing Digimon, Dragonball Z, and The Simpson’s characters. One of my first jobs was at Wilson’s Furniture store. I worked there while attending college and delivered furniture all over the Southern Illinois region as well as decorating the store for all of the holidays. It was also where I gained my love of traveling. I graduated from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 2012 with a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering. Upon completing this degree, I moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana for a Process Quality Engineering position with Michelin at their BF Goodrich plant. The rest of the tale is in “Our Story”….

I had been living in a small, one bedroom apartment in Fort Wayne, IN for 10 years and living a pretty routine lifestyle. I had been pretty career driven for a majority of that time but had reached a point where I wanted to find someone to share all of my adventures with…so I decided to put my love for playing my guitar, watching Blues hockey & Colts football, and my love for mashed potatoes on Hinge and Bumble.

It was the beginning of February 2023 when I came across Robyn's profile on Hinge. The picture with her on a kayak wearing a shark tooth necklace made me swipe right since kayaking took me back to some great childhood memories. Crazy enough a few hours later I come across Robyn again on Bumble. I swiped right again, but this time for a grasshopper fear that led me to ask if she was scared of a the one in the movie "A Bug's Life". Then out of the blue I get a popup message that we matched on both apps. After a few messages we had our first date set for the comedy club just up the road from my apartment (We had our 1st date Feb 9th).

I wasn't sure what to think afterward based on how completely opposite that Robyn and I were, but I knew I liked her. Think of the movie Elemental…Robyn is like the character Ember and I'm very much like Wade. My dad encouraged me to go on another date after sharing how he taught my mom to polka dance when they started dating. They've now been married 40+ years. We could create common interests to share.

I planned our 2nd date on Valentine's Day and then a 3rd date watching Antman in the theaters. I was getting optimistic with how our dates went that I invited her over to watch the Blues game on TV and then see a comedy show the following night. I decided to make our relationship official before walking her back out to her car. She initially said I didn't have to walk her to the car, but my reply was, "That's not the kind of boyfriend I am." I knew it was something real because for the next two weeks while I was away at training for work we would talk on the phone for 2-3 hours each night and not repeat a single thing. It was as easy as breathing.

It was from there I decided to show Robyn my "constantly on the move" side. There wasn't a weekend for the longest time that we weren't going somewhere for dates or meeting family members. Some of my favorite trips include a trip to The Spaghetti Factory (where Robyn met my parents), Robyn's first Blues game, a chocolate factory tour at Debrand's (where I met her parents), a trip for pizza along Lake Michigan (where I met her brother and sister-in-law), many dates at the comedy club or movie theater, a Fort Wayne zoo trip (where I will never live down calling a peacock an ostrich as they were walking by us on the path), a lantern festival at the Grand Rapids zoo, a trip to Nashville for CMA fest, a 4th of July trip to St. Louis, a Lindsey Sterling concert and a Jeff Dunham show at the Ohio State Fair, and several kayaking trips.

In late Fall, I moved in with Robyn. Living together was not always smooth due to a lot of career uncertainty and anxiety from that, but I was committed to supporting whatever opportunity knocked. As fate would have it, Nashville was the opportunity that literally spoke the loudest to us and we moved in February 2024.

I also started to get some not-so-subtle hints about what to propose with and where not to propose at from Robyn. It ranged from getting a ring pop like in the movie Deadpool to browsing actual engagement rings. Unbeknownst to Robyn, I took notes and planned for both. I also wanted to incorporate her love for Pokémon so I got a Pokeball replica and planned to stick the ring inside. Since we are both numbers nerds I waited to propose on Pi day. I found out the day before that the Pokeball I purchased didn't actually open (it just lit up), so I improvised and wrote a letter and said I wanted to give her something round and shiny later. Around 4:44 P.M. I popped the question in our living room to an utterly shocked Robyn. After she said "Are you sure?", and me saying yes back, she said yes.

Through it all, the best adventures have been the ones we've created with each other, and I know we're excited to kick off the next phase of our life together. Due to our nerdiness with numbers landing our special day during the week, we're excited to be able to share this day virtually with those who have been part of our journey!