Shawn and I met our freshman year of college at the University of New England. By the end of that year, our friend groups had begun to merge and we were spending more time together. One night, as we were all hanging out, Shawn piqued my interest with the question "who wants to play checkers?"

..... He kicked my butt.

Early in the summer after our freshman year Shawn was going on a camping trip with some of his friends - my roommates and I got invited to tag along.

One night on that trip, while looking at some glowy bugs, Shawn told me that he wanted to kiss me. Being the master of romance that I am I responded eloquently with, "I wouldn't be opposed to that".

Later that summer Shawn and I went on our official first date. We did all the things that small town Maine had to offer - aka we went out for ice cream, a movie, and spent some time outside watching the stars. We stayed out much too late, talking into the wee hours of the morning.

For the most part, we spent the next year together about how you would expect... studying... naturally.

Still to this day one of the best dates that I have ever been on was a date that Shawn planned in October of 2017. The entire date was a surprise and he took me into Boston to do all the things I had never done before - including taking a train ride, eating a chocolate chip bagel, seeing a planetarium show, and trying a cannoli!

The night ended with Shawn telling me he loved me while a homeless man slept on a nearby bench.

This year started off pretty exciting with us both studying abroad in Tangier, Morocco! We spent time exploring the city, hiking really tall mountains, and learning Arabic! (We can maaayyybe still count to three?)

When we weren't on campus that semester we were traveling the world! We spent time in Gibraltar, Seville, the Sahara Desert, the Canary Islands, and South Africa. Maybe more.

My personal favorite trip was our trip to the Canary Islands. Shawn planned a visit to their "Monkey Park" where he made my outlandish dream of shaking hands with a monkey come true... Only time will tell if he makes the dream of training bees to respond to the sound of me playing cello come true.

Shawn would maybe claim the day in South Africa when we went bungee jumping off the tallest commercial bridge jump to be his favorite. We also got to walk hand-in-trunk with elephants that day.

The rest of the year was a lot less exciting.

Welcome to COVID year!

Despite the lockdown, we still managed some pretty cool things.

Shawn and I moved in together in our South Portland apartment.

We also graduated from college!

This was also the start of our mission to see as many national parks as possible. We kicked it off with a trip to Congaree National Park in South Carolina during our spring break that year (the trip was cut a day or two short because the world was shutting down due to lockdown orders).

These years are mostly all the same!

We took many more cool trips - Including 5 more national parks: Acadia, Shenandoah, Everglades, Rainier, Olympic! And several tropical locations too - Costa Rica, and the Maldives!

We have both worked at jobs that we love (as much as you can love a job I guess). Shawn in the tech field doing GIS things and me in the social work field as a case manager.

We've spent time with friends, gone to a million concerts, carved a bunch of pumpkins, and we have housed tiny turtles (Pickle, Wedgie, Little Foot, and Squidge - not all at the same time)!

To reward you for reading this far you will now get the story of our engagement.

Shawn planned us a camping trip on Memorial Day weekend. I knew we were going someone in the White Mountains, but I didn't have a ton of information, but that's classic - Shawn is the romantic one and typically the date planner.

So, anyway, we went camping in the white mountains, and we got there fairly late Friday night. We set up the tent, made food (I made smash burgers and they were bomb) and Shawn told me it was supposed to be a good night to see the stars, and he saw a good clearing a little bit back on our way in.

Shawn drove us down the street (past several good viewing points, I might add) until we arrived to a familiar place. It was the dock where we had our first kiss, almost exactly 7 years before.

We spent a few minutes looking at the stars, shivering a little bit, and reminiscing about our last 7 years. Then of course, that led to us hunting for more glowy bugs. Though we couldn't find any, I did find Shawn holding an engagement ring, asking me to marry him. And, as you all know, I wouldn't be opposed to that......

This is the present. You have the whole story! All that's left for this year is for me to quit my job, graduate from college (again), followed by Shawn becoming a private pilot (he's really cool. *not sarcasm*). Then we will move out of our apartment, live in an RV for a few months bippin' all around. Then we get married!