Grill you marry me?

There comes a time in every Alpha Delt’s life when it is time to settle down.  My “time” finally came on June 21, 2012 when I proposed to my girlfriend of 3 1/2 years.  Kellie and I started dating our senior year of college.  She was an Iowa State Cyclone and I was a Minnesota Gopher. Thank goodness she wasn’t a Hawkeye or it never would’ve worked.

Prior to the engagement, I had asked some of my close engaged/married friends when they knew it was time to propose. One of them responded, “When I realized she was the most important part of my life”. Those words stuck with me, and I knew I was ready.  The weekend finally came when I knew that it was the right time. I had already informed my parents of my intention and had received their blessing, but it was necessary that I received permission from Kellie’s family.

Kellie and her family live in Iowa and it was important to me that I asked her family in person, but didn’t want to call ahead to them because it would pretty much would give it away.  I took a chance and left early one afternoon with the intention of driving to her family’s house praying that they would just happen to be there.  As luck would have it, they were home.  I walked in and Kellie’s sister immediately got a large grin on her face instantly knowing why I was there.  I very nervously asked them to sit down and proceeded to blubber out my feelings for Kellie and finally got to my main point which was asking if I had their blessing to marry her.  As you can probably guess from reading this article so far, they gave me their blessings and tears and hugs followed.  After the wave of emotions had passed, it was now time to figure out logistics.

Kellie was currently at work and she knew I was coming down, but didn’t expect me for another two hours when her shift was over.  This meant that I had two hours of nervous excitement to kill, so I decided to go and buy a bottle of champagne but unfortunately, had no champagne glasses.  I then did what any good midwesterner would do and drove 30 minutes to Walmart where I bought a four-pack (I only needed two, but c’mon, you can’t beat their prices!).  I showed up to Kellie’s apartment right around the time she had expected me.  The ring was in my pocket and the champagne was chilling in a gas station-bought styrofoam cooler in my car.  I walked in doing my best to control my excitement and gave her a big kiss.  It was my birthday weekend and Kellie gave me a card that said “Look in the closet for your gifts.”  I opened the closet and sitting inside was a brand new beautiful Weber Grill. If there had been any doubt at all in my mind that this was the right woman for me, it was erased at that moment.  As soon as I saw the grill, I knew this was the moment. I mustered up the most romantic thing I could think of…and asked her if she would please get me a beer from the fridge.

She went to the kitchen and I slipped the ring box on the grill grate. When she returned, I made sure that I had a confused look on my face.  She looked at me questioningly and I calmly stated “hmm…this is weird, I don’t think this present is for me, but for you.”  I then proceeded to get down on one knee and do a proper proposal.  SHE SAID YES! (Pro-tip, apparently you’re not actually supposed to put the ring on their finger until they say yes…I was chided for this).

All in all, June 21, 2012 will remain one of the most exciting, emotional and greatest days of my life.  I look forward to our future together and who knows, there might be a little Samuel Eells Jacobson running around Homecoming at the good ol’ ADPhi house someday.

— John “Jingles” Jacobson
Class of 2009