At the beginning with you...

Whitney and I were studying in the library last July, and we got the crazy idea that we should, somehow, try to get to the top of the SWKT and look out over Provo. Because a key is required to ride the elevator to the twelfth floor, we went to the eleventh floor and found every door locked. After jiggling handles and punching in random 6 digit codes, we got back on the elevator and headed for the ground floor, disappointed that our plans had been thwarted and none of our secret codes had worked. But a few floors down, the elevator doors opened and a girl walked on. Due to our keen detective skills, we observed an absurd amount of keys dangling from her pocket and were able to conclude she was a janitor. With some quick thinking and a little charm, I had her convinced she should open up a specific room for us on the eleventh floor. It was the CSED room, the Center for Elections and Democratic something. All we know is that there was a big 'ol picture of Dr. Magelby, bow tie and all, taped to the wall. When we asked the janitor if she would let us in, we thought she’d chaperon us while we looked out the window for a minute, but we were pleasantly surprised. The janitor opened the door and told us to just make sure that the door locked behind us when we left. It was great! We searched through all the drawers, worked on the computers, read unpublished book chapters, and even put on some political movies we found lying around.

At midnight, we decided that it was probably time to head home but suddenly heard a security guard checking the doors. Whitney decided to “duck and cover” while I stood there like a deer in the headlights, but he didn’t see us so it was all good. We had no way to escape until we could be sure that the guard was not in the building. It was probably around one o’ clock when we finally mustered the courage to leave. What a crazy night. It was that night that we realized how much we liked each other. I think both of us wished we were actually dating the entire night (at this time we were still pseudo-dating, or in other words, we were madly in love with one another but were both acting like we couldn’t stand each other).

Well, a few days later, I came to my senses, asked Whitney to be my girlfriend, and we became the newest and hottest couple BYU has ever seen. Unfortunately, our blissful time of pure happiness was cut short because, on the 14^th of August, I went back home for break and Whitney moved to D.C. (there she would find the second love of her life - talking to me on the phone).

After four crazy months of taking advantage of free nights and weekends, Whitney came back to Provo, and once again life was good. We continued dating and things just went so well. I love her so much! And, lucky for me, she loves me back. We shopped for a ring and finally found one, which turned out to only be sold in every major city outside of Utah. I secretly got the ring and had it shipped out here from CA. Whitney had absolutely no idea that the ring was anywhere near my possession.

This is where the story gets good, so buckle up. I told Whitney on Wednesday, March 12^th that she needed to come home right after school the next day, so we could hang out all afternoon. She, of course, loved that idea. On Thursday at about four thirty, Whitney came to my apartment, and I tried to play it cool so I wouldn’t spill the beans before its time. I asked her if she wanted to go to Macaroni Grill, and she got all excited and said she totally wanted to go. We ate some Italian food and all the while I was a nervous wreck (still not blowing it though since Whitney still hadn’t caught on at all).

As we were eating, there was this random stranger that I met on Tuesday opening up that CSED room. He had access to the room and had agreed to help. I loaned him my cell phone (since he oddly did not own one) and told him I would call him about 15 minutes before we got there. This cell phone swap resulted in a few bumps in the road. As Whitney was leaving school, she had tried to call me on my cell number, and she was surprised to hear a random guy’s voice on the other end. The CSED guy had answered thinking it was me and almost blew it as he so cunningly responded with an “uh…ummm” and hung up. Whitney got upset because she thought that guy had stolen my phone. The whole time we are eating dinner, Whitney thought my cell had been stolen. I told her that I thought I may have left it in the lab in the SWKT, so we headed over there to look for it.

Right when we get to the steps of the SWKT, I asked her if she wanted to try to go up to the room, the one we had been in before we were dating. We had talked about wanting to go back there several times. If you know Whitney, you already know that if you offer her a chance to go exploring, she will always take it. As we were heading to the elevator, Whitney said to me that we could convince someone there to let us into the room if we told them that it is where we first fell in love with one another. When those words came out of her mouth, I knew I was as good as gold.

We got up there and, just as I had worked out, the door was carefully propped open so that it looked closed. We walked in and Whitney was going nuts. She was so excited that we got in. She turned to me and said, “Someone forgot to lock the door!” So, obviously she still had not clued in to my plan yet.

I was excited too and pretty nervous. I didn’t want waste any time because that ring was burning a hole in my pocket. I walked her to the window. I said I was so glad that she also felt that this was the place we had fallen in love with each other because this was the place that I had chosen to ask her to marry me. Right then I pulled the ring out of my pocket, got down on one knee, and asked her to marry me. She was shocked and speechless. She screamed and jumped up and down, and said yes. I love her! She kept jumping and screaming for about a minute. Suddenly, she started to put things together (the random voice on the phone, the lost cell phone in the lab, and the “unlocked” door) and that’s when she started to hit me and ask questions about how I did it all. I don’t think there is any greater satisfaction than making the person you love feel just how much you actually love them. It was so great.

I am so happy to say that we are getting married on the June 7^th, and we are very excited to start this journey called marriage together. I can not think of a person that I would rather share my life with than Whitney, and we will try to keep you all posted on the crazy adventures we are having.