Joshua and Lauryn Garriss

I first met Lauryn when we both enrolled in UCF’s Visual Language curriculum at the downtown campus in 2010. She was a little shy and reserved during classes, but extremely cute. Naturally, I wanted to get to know her a bit more, so I invited her to join us in a group project. We started calling and texting one another about homework assignments, but the topic would quickly change to likes/dislikes, nerdy debates on Harry Potter vs Lord of the Rings, and general conversation about family and friends. As our friendship grew, so did my feelings for her and I eventually built up the courage to kiss her (ok, she actually kissed me first). We started dating officially after that and our first date was at a UCF football game, where we beat the UAB Blazers 42-7. After graduating in 2012, we started to spend our lives together; traveling, adopting a cat, and building up our careers. UCF always had a special place in our hearts, and I wanted to incorporate our alma mater into our love story one more time. She had warned me that if I ever proposed to her, that it should never be in a public place as that was “too embarrassing”. So, being the extra one in the relationship, I thought what better place to propose that where we had our first date. But in order to meet her specifications, I made sure that we were the only ones in the stadium at the time. On November 6, 2016, I walked Lauryn out on that field, got down on one knee, and proposed to the love of my life. We were married a year later on November 13, 2017 and UCF continues to play a prominent role in our lives to this day.