It was just over 14 years ago that we met and I knew from that moment you were something special. In the years since, we have maintained a close bond even though we were over a thousand miles apart.

It was not the initial romance we kindled so long ago that I cherish but the years of friendship since. You have – more than anyone else in my life – help shape who I am. You taught me so much from the other side of the country. I can not imagine what you will teach me side by side.

I find it astounding that in the many years that we’ve known each other we have yet to find ourselves come to a major disagreement or any other impasse. I continue find great intellectual simulation in our conversations, and I melt in the warm presence of your beauty.

You instill in me a confidence I have never known. You lift me up and make me believe that I can do anything in this world. But there is only one thing I want to do, one thing more than anything that I can imagine myself doing – that is to marry you.

And it is with this that I declare in this life, in every situation: wealth or poverty, health or sickness, happiness or difficulty, I vow to dedicate myself to you – body, speech, and mind. I promise to see all challenges as an opportunity to grow – both within and together. I choose you, over any other, every day for the rest of my days.