K: I’ve gone to church with John Michael’s cousin for a very long time, but never even knew he existed. He did not come up in conversation ever. I decided to go to Southern and everyone here kept telling me, “You have to meet John Michael, you have to meet John Michael, he’s super cool…” and I was like, “All right.”
I knew right away that I liked him. We started to date in March of that school year and just developed a good friendship. It’s been two and half years since we met.
We were in Nashville for the eclipse because we knew that [was where it] would be under totality. We were doing it big! We wanted to see the daytime darkness. He was very relaxed, just John Michael. Just chill. I was just excited that I was eating food.
He asked to take some photos, and I’m not a photographer so I was nervous that I wasn’t going to get the photo. I was worried he was going to be bummed out that we didn’t get the photo. So my mind was totally focused on that.
As the eclipse started, everybody was cheering and so pumped for the eclipse. John Michael was recording the eclipse. Right as it started leaving, he whipped off our glasses and I’m in a frenzy over the eclipse. It was only two and a half minutes. I didn’t even see him bend down, next thing I knew he was already there, and I looked down and there he is on one knee.
I asked him, “Are you asking me to marry you?” and he said, “Yeah, would you be my wife?”
G: So what’s in store for the future, except the wedding of course?
K: Graduation is the next big thing on the ticket. For both of us, it was important to graduate before getting married. That’s an accomplishment that we want to have because I think that is something for us as individuals. The plan is to keep moving forward to never stop supporting one another. That’s the goal: working towards the things we’re passionate about and pushing one another to accomplish those things.