Elizabeth and I didn’t meet under the most romantic of circumstances, but that didn’t phase us. Within the first week of our freshman year, while I was playing Mario Kart with some friends in one of the communal areas on campus, my friend invited Elizabeth and her friend Elaina to play with us. By some miracle, Elizabeth sat next to me, and that’s how we met. Elizabeth tells me that she was “peeped” almost immediately (peeped is a term coined by the one and only Anna Fischer, and it essentially means you pay closer attention when someone is in the room). Considering that this was during my long-haired phase, I am lucky that she could stand looking at me…

Within a couple weeks, we had a lot of mutual friends and had hung out in group settings a good amount. The first time we ever hung out just us two, she invited me to go to Costco with her because she needed a few things, and she said I could use her membership if I needed (great excuse). She bought flowers for her dorm room, and I got chewed out by the receipt-checker on the way out for not buying them for her. Soon after this, the freshman retreat rolled around. I had almost no intention of going to said retreat, but several friends (okay, mostly Elizabeth…) convinced me I should go. The second night of the retreat, a good amount of people set up hammocks to sleep in, and both Elizabeth and I had brought our own hammocks. As you can tell, I was fairly “peeped” by this time. We set up our hammocks within talking distance of each other and proceeded to talk together until 2 or 3 in the morning. That was the night I knew I was going to ask this girl out.

Funnily enough, I had told one of my best friends right before college that I had no intentions of dating my freshman year (that didn’t last long). So, I had a conversation with them and basically asked what they thought about Elizabeth. I got the seal of approval, and within a few days I asked Elizabeth out. Our first date was at Scotty’s Diner, the only reason I chose this place was because they serve their kids meals in little model cars that you get to keep, and I thought that was cute. Sure enough, we both got kids meals and we still have those yellow cars to this day. Later in the semester, Elizabeth was making plans to go back to Sioux Falls for Fall Break. She invited me and some others to stay at her house, but by the time fall break came around, it ended up being only us two staying with her family. I was both thrilled and terrified because we were not yet “boyfriend and girlfriend.” On the second morning of Fall Break, we were washing dishes when she informed me that we were going to Scheels. The catch was: a lot of her extended family would also be at Scheels, and I was going to be meeting all of them. She told me she was wondering how she should introduce me to them. I got the obvious hint, and asked her then and there, in our pajamas, to be my girlfriend.

During Christmas break, I had no idea what to get for Elizabeth. I had bought her a little necklace, but I wanted to give her something more personal. I decided to start writing her little notes every day, starting on new year’s 2022. Every 3-4 days since then, I have given her an envelope with notecards labeled with the days and months that say how much I love her and what I’m excited about for the day (remember this for later). For the rest of our freshman year, we grew into our relationship. I cut my hair, we went to the national March for Life, we went on a trip to Arizona with her family, we played on a frisbee team together, Elizabeth broke her nose while playing for said frisbee team, we played a ridiculous amount of Monopoly during an Easter blizzard, and we grew in our relationship with God and each other. The summer after our freshman year, we went back to our respective homes. I spent the summer getting my Certified Nursing Assistant license, and she nannied full time in Sioux Falls. We were thankfully able to visit each other a few times during the summer and show each other our hometowns.

Fall of Sophomore year brought new challenges and new graces. I captained the best frisbee team of all time The Grapes of Wrath (and of course Elizabeth was my first overall pick), we had a great Halloween costume duo, and I went with Elizabeth to her family’s hunting lodge for the first time over Thanksgiving break. We spent Christmas with my family, and then started our spring semester on a huge pilgrimage and adventure to Rome together.

Rome was wonderful. We made new friends, ate good food, drank good wine, grew in conflict resolution, and had the opportunity to travel to England, Ireland, Poland, Spain, and all over Italy together. If I tried to even summarize all the stories from Rome, I would take up way too much space, but I can guarantee both Elizabeth and I have plenty of stories to tell.

During the Summer after Rome, Elizabeth and I did a summer semester at UMary. I was crazy busy with Nursing classes, but we still had fun adventures like going camping in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, travelling to Winnipeg, and our first late-night bar karaoke together. We also started talking a lot more seriously about our plans for marriage during this time.

Speaking of plans for marriage, this is when I started planning the proposal. In the late summer, I worked with a jewelry store in town to create an engagement ring. Before the end of the summer, I made the biggest purchase of my life. I kept the ring under my bed in a box in a bag in another box in another bag in a bigger box in a giant box. Needless to say, I didn’t want Elizabeth finding out. The funny part is, since Elizabeth didn’t know I had the ring, she spent the next 2 months telling me about every sale she heard about on the radio or saw an ad for, and I had to keep a straight face and tell her thank you for trying to find good deals for me.

After our 2-year anniversary, things kicked into high gear. First, I asked one of our friends who is a photographer to shoot our engagement. Unfortunately, I had made my text to the friend a little too subtle because she came up to me and Elizabeth later that day and asked “What’s happening on the 18 that you texted about?” I said it was nothing, gave her a little glare, and talked with her later. Elizabeth asked about this very suspicious comment a couple days later, and I didn’t skip a beat and said I was wondering when our friend was getting an MRI for her knee since she was having issues (true story). In the following days I also threw out other distractors like “I think I want to propose once there’s snow” and a couple others. Thankfully, Elizabeth took the bait.

After I figured out the photographer and date, I decided that I wanted to ask Elizabeth to marry me in the spot where I had decided to ask her out: the 4-H Day Camp where we had our freshman retreat. The problem was that it was over an hour away. How could I possibly drive her that far away and not have her know what was going on? Cue Operation “Nightstand.” About a week before the proposal date, I texted Elizabeth that I needed a nightstand. I complained that my phone kept falling down the side of my bed, I didn’t have anywhere to put my stuff, and I just thought a nightstand would look nice. The next day, I created a fake Facebook account for a guy that conveniently lived in the town where the 4-H camp was. I then posted a picture of a nightstand on Facebook Marketplace with a price that no one could pass up. I proceeded to have a conversation with myself on Facebook setting up a place and a time to pick up the “nightstand.” I asked Elizabeth to come with me, and she agreed. She did however complain to everyone about how her boyfriend was making her drive with him an hour both ways on her one weekend off to get a nightstand… The big day finally came, and I was so nervous. We went to mass, went out to breakfast, and then drove out to Washburn, North Dakota to pick up a “nightstand.” When we got there, Elizabeth was a little freaked out. She asked me if this was the 4-H camp that we went to, and I was like, “Weird, it kinda looks like it.” I told her that I would text the guy that we were here, but she was still not happy. We went to the back of the main building, and Elizabeth told me she thought we were going to get mugged or something. When we got to the back (right where we had set up our hammocks and talked all night), I asked her if I had given her the note for the day, and she responded with something like “No! Why the heck would you ask that? We’re gonna get mugged.” I pulled out a notecard that said the date and month, but only had one line of writing on it. It simply read, “Elizabeth, I have a question.” I got down on one knee, and said “Elizabeth, you bring me so much joy. Will you marry me?” She covered her mouth and and gasped, "No..." then responded with a surprised, “Wait! I mean yes!!” In that moment, I went from the most nervous I had ever been to the happiest I have ever been.

Our engagement has been wonderful so far, even through wedding planning. I cannot believe that I get to marry the love of my life! I am so excited. God is so good.

Peace,

~Caleb