He proposed!

I'm ENGAGED!!!!!! He is the most wonderful man in the world. Yes, I know everyone says that about their significant other, but he is truly the love of my life. :) I have never met a man that is so caring, so selfless, funny, intelligent, sarcastic, and loving. He knows how to be the big strong knight in shining armor, the sexy army man, romantic, sweet, and then at the end of the day someone that I just enjoy snuggling up on the couch with while making fun of a B movie on netflix. He keeps me on my toes...literally. He's 6'3" and I'm 5'3". :) We met our sophomore year of college when we took the same class together. At that time it was just the occasional hi when we saw each other in the dorms or on the bus. When February 14th 2008 happened on my campus, we ran into each other and we exchanged numbers. He texted me that night asking how I was since he knew I was still stuck on campus until the following morning.

Sophomore year came and went-I started dating someone who I wasn't very happy with but I thought if I stayed in the relationship long enough I could eventually become happy. I wasn't. In the second semester of my junior year I was walking to my American Revolution class and a tall guy in an army ROTC uniform called out my name. I turned and recognized him. He knew and remembered my name, although I had no idea what his was. It took me a month of trying to see his name on his papers until I finally figured out. We were both in relationships at the time, but it turns out neither of us were happy.

I spent most of the semester competing with him for the best grades in class. He would show up, ask me what the article was about, I'd give him a two sentence overview, and then he would spend 20 minutes talking in class about the article, and the professor couldn't stop singing his praises.. Jerk. I was the one up until 2am reading, taking notes, and the professor would look at me like I was an idiot. Sigh... Anyway, we both ended up breaking up with the people we were dating, and one day after class he asked if I wanted to grab a cup of coffee. I told him no. I had a lot of stuff to do that day but with enough pestering he convinced me to go. After our coffee, we exchanged numbers (I lost his number when he gave it to me back in Sophomore year) and we started to text each other the next day nonstop. The semester ended and we had gone to the bar a couple of times together, went to dinner once, made out a couple of times (blush), but nothing was established when we both left school for the summer. We continued to text once break started and then he asked me to go downtown on May 26th. We went, had an amazing time, and he asked me out that day in the train station. Two weeks later he was gone for the entire summer. We communicated with letters and phone calls...it was hard, new love, but we made it work. We've been through a month in Washington, a month in Korea, training weekends away, 6 months in Oklahoma, and now a long distance relationship with him in North Carolina and me in Chicago. He is probably going to be deployed in October for a year, if we can make it through this, and we will I know we will make it through anything.
Flash forward to December 21st 2010-he proposed to me on the steps of the Chicago Art institute...which is where we had our first date on May 26, 2009. It was private and perfect. And yes...the ring is more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. :)

Thanks for listening to our story. :)