By Brendan Ulmer
Ulmer Uncensored
It’s my pleasure to announce to you, the readers, that on Sept. 21, I got engaged to my longtime girlfriend, Maddie Holland.
I met Maddie during my spring semester at Hutchinson Community College in 2022. I still remember the first time I saw her. She was wearing a vibrant, colorful top and light-colored jeans. She was a striking image, tall with soft blue eyes and beautiful, cascading strawberry blonde hair.
We had ethics class together, where I watched her shy nature fail to mask what was clearly a bright and humming mind.
I was always looking for the chance to talk to her, eavesdropping on her conversations and slyly trying to work my way in where I thought I might be able to add something interesting. I introduced myself with a handshake, very smooth.
Today, she tells me that when I had introduced myself to her, her thought was, “Why is this guy shaking my hand?” The answer: Because I meant business.
I tried to talk with her more, but she never seemed very interested in talking to me. Noticing that she seemed uncomfortable, I stopped trying to talk to her, leading to a one-month-long quiet period. This, apparently, was the wrong read. I had confused her shyness for disinterest. Maddie then did something that is very out of the ordinary for her, SHE initiated a conversation with ME.
She still talks about how Herculean a task this was for her, and I am grateful for her effort. We talked through the end of the year, but our romantic potential was still inhibited by my overriding instinct to always assume that a woman is just trying to be your friend.
It wasn’t until the summer, when I had moved back in with my family in Kansas City, that I noticed our conversations had upgraded to being all-day, every day, often late into the night. It was pretty clear to me around this point that she might be interested in something more than being friends.
We bonded over Seinfeld, our love for animals, current events, and the fact that we both have siblings who were born on April 6, 2006.
We began dating officially on July 6, 2022.
I’m very thankful for my grandma, Diana Wendell, for allowing me a place to stay in town that summer every time I wanted to visit my new girlfriend, which was often.
We spent three years together at the University of Kansas, deepening our education and our relationship.
We enjoyed the finest date spots Lawrence could offer to two young, nearly broke college students.
As our senior year began, we knew we needed to start thinking about where our future was going to be. We came to an understanding that we’d leave it up to whoever got a job first, and wherever that job was, that’s where we’d move. Being that I was a film student, the competition of who was going to get a job first was one that she was extremely likely to win, and she did.
Maddie got a job as a digital media specialist for BowerComm before she was done getting her degree.
Maddie spent the final semester of her college career doing classes full-time, working at Starbucks part-time, working at BowerComm part-time, and working on an honors thesis. She is an incredibly hard worker.
We moved down to Hutchinson and into the same house for the first time in late June of this year, with the quiet understanding that a ring was on the way.
I was able to save up enough money to get the ring that was exactly what she wanted, and coordinated with Maddie’s mom, Annette Holland, and grandparents, Arlyn and Glenda Lindquist, to set up the proposal.
I proposed to her on her grandparents’ property, which has been in her family since they came to the United States. It’s a property with a beautiful farmhouse, rustic, picturesque barns and sheds, and at the time it was surrounded by sunflower fields, although they were beginning to die (can’t win ‘em all).
She said yes, and I’m so grateful that in my life I’ve been able to find someone who means so much to me and spend the rest of my life with them.
Maddie, if you’re reading this, I love you.