In the summer of 2014, I lived in an off-campus apartment with a sorority sister while I co-oped in Auburn. As it turns out, my roommate was dating this cute, blonde engineering major named Robert, who was in Auburn for the summer semester. Over the course of the summer, I came to see how kind, patient, smart, and loyal Robert was. I remember thinking to myself that I was a little jealous of my roommate and that "I just needed to find someone like Robert Price." Over the next 3 years, Robert and I became close friends since we had the same friend circle. Although we never dated (he says because I was always dating someone else?? I don't know, he could be right), I came to love Robert as a friend: who shared my values and beliefs, who was always around when I needed to talk, who was loyal to all his friends including me. Something I loved the most about my friend, Robert, was that he was always up for an adventure. So as time went on, and we graduated, we soon found ourselves as the only two people in our friend group who consistently saw each other for fun adventures on the weekends - which only deepened our friendship. On Memorial Day 2018, all of our college friends met up at Lake Martin for an annual reunion. I remember looking at Robert as he drove the boat and thinking - hey, he's pretty cute! A few weeks later, my favorite Auburn band, Blackberry Breeze, was playing at the lake, and he invited me back to see them. I was living in Atlanta at the time, and when I got to the lake, Robert had already cooked a steak dinner and was waiting on me with red wine, boxed macaroni and cheese, and bagged Caesar salad. I should have known he liked me then...but I didn't. In fact, I didn't know he liked me at all until a few weeks after that, he sent me roses for my birthday!! I remember telling my Atlanta roommates that I simply "couldn't" date Robert Price. When they asked me why, I said because I was afraid if I dated him, I would marry him, and I was having fun dating. From there, the rest is history. We eventually both found ourselves in New Orleans, bought a house, adopted a puppy, and got engaged! I guess I was right all those years ago after all - I dated Robert Price, and now I get to marry him! We have had so many adventures together so far: 3 trips to Germany, a road trip around Arizona, a trip to Switzerland, Austria, France, and Luxembourg, a COVID getaway in Helen, GA, seeing the hot air balloons in New Mexico, visiting Yosemite, seeing Taylor Swift in Spain, visiting friends all across the country, going to Aruba and Punta Cana, and even Hawaii...but I am most excited for all the adventure we have ahead of us.

I met Rachel in 2012 - our freshman year at Auburn - through mutual friends from her sorority and ended up in the same friend groups. From when I first met her, she always impressed me by being a straight-A engineering student while still being the life of the party.

We stayed friends throughout college and got closer our junior and senior years. After graduation, she moved to Atlanta and I moved to Mobile, and I figured that was probably that.

Fast forward to 2017. We were both back in Auburn for a reunion tailgate, and Rachel randomly invited me to the Endymion Extravaganza for Mardi Gras in New Orleans. I said yes, obviously. That weekend I completely fell for her - but with us in different cities, I doubted anything would come of it.

Still, I kept finding excuses to hang out with her over the next few months. Then that summer, I invited our college friends to a lake weekend. Not many people showed up, but Rachel did - which worked out, because I used the opportunity to finally make a move. She initially turned me down. Pretty brutally. But she came around, and not long after, we started dating.

Even though we started our relationship long-distance, I somehow managed to convince her to come to Oktoberfest in Germany with me in 2018 after just a few months of dating. Rachel moved to New Orleans soon after, which meant lots of weekend trips back and forth between Mobile and NOLA. Then when COVID hit, she ended up stuck in Mobile with me for what we thought would be a couple weeks… it turned into months. And honestly, it ended up being an incredible experience for us. Eventually I moved to New Orleans with her when I started working remotely, and we’ve been doing life together ever since.

In the last few years, we’ve packed in a lot - wine nights during lockdown, a new puppy (Ford), way too many takeout orders, and trips all over the world: Germany, France, Austria, Aruba, Punta Cana… and she brought me to see Taylor Swift in Spain. It’s been an amazing ride so far and I couldn’t ask for a better partner in these adventures.

Looking back, it’s crazy how things worked out. From college friends to long-distance to where we are now, I’m really glad she came to that lake party.