We met at the University of Colorado. We both lived in the same dorm but our social lives didn't intersect. Shannon was pledging for a sorority and Alex wasn't. Alex was skateboarding and Shannon wasn't. In 2005 after Junior year Shannon moved in with a mutual friend. Over the course of a couple parties we finally bonded over the deliciousness of frozen grapes, but nothing happened as we were both convinced the other one was too good--somehow we were both out of our leagues.
After college we wanted to travel, and we didn't wanted to interfere with the other's trip. Shannon moved to Costa Rica and Alex moved to Peru. We spent 10 weeks apart and could barely handle it. Alex was able to quickly get himself and Shannon job offers in Peru as well as an adorable apartment off the plaza. Shannon had no choice but to move in with him. We stayed in Peru for 5 months together and spent a month taking various buses through Peru, down the Chilean Coast, over the Andes into Argentina, and eventually to Buenos Aires. Shannon handled this rugged traveling like a champ. There was not a hint of sorority girl to be found.
After Peru we moved to Portland. Shannon continued her dramatic voyage towards medical school, and Alex begged his way into a seasonal job at AFS, a study abroad organization. In 2007 we drove up to Longview Washington where we met a skinny black runt that hadn't yet grown into her ears, and we named her Joby.
Alex made his way into a permanent position at AFS, while Shannon worked as nursing assistant and her free time pushed through mountains of med school applications. We bought a home together and then about a year later, Shannon heard those four words from Oregon Health and Sciences University she'd been dreaming about her whole life; "You have been accepted!"
Once life was a little more settled for Shannon, Alex decided that it might finally be time to propose. With a aversion to anything cliche he didn't do it on spring break in Mexico, he didn't do it on her birthday and he didn't do it on the beautiful beaches of Kauai. He waited for the perfect moment, on a blue canoe on the Deschutes river in Bend, Oregon with a beautiful heirloom ring, originally his grandmothers.
