How We Met
We went to high school together, but did not meet until the summer going in to our senior year. We were both in the SCUBA diving club and met on the club’s trip to the Bahamas, thousands of miles away from where we went to school in Chicago. I had never spoken to him before this trip and when we were assigned to be dive buddies for the week, neither of us knew it would change our whole lives! On one of our first dives together, we found ourselves in a bit of a hairy situation and were surrounded by black tip Caribbean Reef sharks! I was trying to play it cool, and failing, Elliot noticed my slight panic and scared off the sharks. After that we saw a pod of wild dolphins and I felt like I was in a Mary Kate and Ashley movie. He didn’t know it at the time, but I fell in love with him, 70 feet under water and we couldn’t even speak to each other. Two weeks later we went on our first date and the rest is history. We dated for 4 years long distance in college, and after graduation I got the opportunity to move to Ireland to work and to play for the Irish Women’s National Water Polo team. Elliot has been so supportive of my move, and he is currently serving active duty in the US Navy as a submarine officer. We have joked that one day in the future we are going to have a really hard time telling our kids, “Don’t worry about who you go to prom with, its not like you are going to marry them!”
Elliot and I scuba diving together. The accidental matching American flag suits should have been a sign we were a match.
how they asked
Since I am currently living in Ireland, Elliot came out to visit me when he had a chance to take leave from the Navy. After a weeks holiday skiing in the Alps, we came back to Ireland to explore since he had never been. We drove all over the country visiting some of my family and seeing the sites. When we got to Killarney, Ireland, the town where my grandfather was born, I was so excited to show him around. There is a waterfall in Killarney National Park that is very special to my family. It was my grandfathers favorite spot and there is a picture of it in my grandparents house as well as my own. I was so excited to take Elliot there that he decided it was the perfect place to pop the question. We asked a girl passing by to take our photo while we stood on the rocks. She captured the moment perfectly, and luckily missed where I almost fell into the water from the shock!
