How We Met
Andrew and I met long before we started to notice each other. Andrew was best friends with the brother/twin of my best friend. We didn’t even acknowledge that we knew each other from 4th grade through 6th grade. Then the big 7th grade came around. I had gone to dinner with a friend’s family who was meeting Andrew’s family and ended up sitting in a booth with Andrew and my friend. I remember after dinner asking for Andrew’s number. Andrew likes to brag that I texted him first. You can imagine the sparks at this point right? We then found our way into the same math class. I can still remember our teacher Mr. Knipe and that Andrew sat right in front of me. I think the only words he said to me that year was to ask for a pencil and the only word I said was ‘yes’ in return. However, like all 7th-grade love beings- my best friend told me Andrew liked me. She also told me Andrew wanted a hug from me for his birthday (lol). Our fling faded out quickly that year but flash forward to the summer before Freshman year of high school, Andrew caught my eye again.
Our same friends took us both as guests to the Great Wolf Lodge and our young love reignited. We started Snapchatting and, before ya know it, Andrew was asking me to the Homecoming dance our Freshman year. This is when things really started to take off for us. That following summer Andrew asked me to be his girlfriend on July 3rd at the Quincy Country Club under a tree during the fireworks. We both had our first kiss that went terribly sweet. We were 15 years old then! We have been together ever since. We revisited the tree on our anniversary every year, and one year carved our initials into it. I’m not sure either of us expected it to last but we just kept falling more and more in love with each other! High school is a blur but we shared so many memories together. It came time to leave for college and we decided on schools that put us 9 hours apart. That’s a whole other story!! But we have made it through 3 years with one to go! And now we are engaged!!
How They Asked
Andrew and I had been talking about when we wanted to get engaged for a while. As mentioned, we are long-distance during the school year so we talked about getting engaged this summer or over the break. In my head, we had decided on over break because there wasn’t much summer left before we had to return to school. It was a random rainy Wednesday. I had worked the night before and we decided to just have a chill day. Andrew came over and we watched a movie. He went home for a meeting. He told me his parents wanted to take us to dinner that night so we were meeting up later that evening. We were going to eat at the Quincy Country Club so of course, I got dressed up. He said he would pick me up and we would head there. When I got in the car Andrew was looking very ‘dapper’ as I had told him.
Andrew dresses up occasionally, especially when we go to dinner, but he looked extra nice. We showed up to the QCC and Andrew offered to come get me with the umbrella but to his surprise, it had stopped raining! As we were walking into the front door there was a golf cart parked in front. Andrew hopped right in and said let’s go! I was confused but I just followed his lead! He drove us on to the golf course.
From a distance, I saw the tree that Andrew had asked me to be his girlfriend 6 years ago. It was all lit up with candles in mason jars hanging from the tree. This is when I knew what was about to happen! We walked up to the tree and at the point, I was already in tears.
Andrew asked me to marry him after we laughed and talked about all that we had been through together, and all the memories we had shared since we were 15. We have come so far from who we were then. It was the easiest YES!! It was the happiest moment of my life!! I cannot wait to marry my high school sweetheart, the man of my dreams!!
