Olivia and Zach Johansen Engagement Announcement

Olivia Goodrich, daughter of Craig and Melissa Goodrich of Rapid City, has become engaged to Zach Johansen, son of Aaron and Renee Johansen of Rapid City.

Saturday, May 20th 2017

Proposal

We went out of state together for our first year of college. It was a great time for us to get away from what we have known and learn to survive on our own. We lived in the same dorm, a floor apart, and got to spend a lot of time together exploring the big city, the campus, and making friends together. It was also a great place for us to grow in our relationship. We knew graduating high school and going to college together would either make us or break us and I am so glad it grew us! We had plenty of Waffle House dates and sushi dates as well as movie nights in each of our dorms.
However, while I loved the city and campus life, Zach was not so fond of it. He moved back to Rapid to finish the school year (huge reason being saving money) and I decided to finish the semester out of state. We knew that was another thing that would either make us or break us. We talked all the time while also keeping a balance of social life out side each other.
When I flew home the first time, it was Valentine’s Day weekend so I knew it would be extra special so I was extra excited. I landed on a Friday morning and Zach picked me up (of course it was a magical-cheesy Disney movie moment). We were going to go meet his parents for lunch and he told me we had to run an errand and go to our old high school first to drop off a pair of headphones for his friend. When we got to the school we greeted the secretary and she asked if I had heard the news about the football field. She told me that someone brought a four wheeler onto the field and messed up the grass tearing it to shreds. She invited us to go out and see where it had been marked off with some signs. When we got out to the football field and I saw the signs in the middle of the field, but I couldn’t see any grass torn up so we decided to go out onto the field for an up-close look. We were approaching the white signs neatly placed on the field when I noticed Zach and I were the only two on the field anymore. I didn’t think anything of it until I saw the other side of the first four signs. “W-I-L-L”.  “Oh my gosh.” I thought. “Oh my gosh. What is this.” We got around to the other side of the signs and I read “Will you marry me?” (At least I think that is what it said. My eyes were blurry with tears by then). All of a sudden Zach was down on one knee on the middle of the football field he played on and I cheered at for the 4 years before. He told me that I was his best friend and he wanted to spend the whole rest of his life with me and asked if I would do the same. I said “yes” with whatever breath was still in me. He put a beautiful ring on my finger, stood up and hugged me and by now I was definitely in tears! It gets better. He told me to look toward the stands where I saw our families hiding under the bleachers yelling and cheering for us!
It could not have been more perfect. I was thoroughly surprised and completely ready to say “yes” to the man of my dreams.

How They Met

We met freshman year of high school. When we first met, we both thought the other was a freak. I thought Zach was a big mean jock because he came into English class calling his friend names while the friend called him names. Completely immature and annoying. He thought I was weird when I would use my study hall hour to stretch in the back of the classroom to prepare for cheerleading practice. I wanted so badly to learn to do the splits (still can’t) so I would set aside the first 10 minutes of class to sit on the floor and stretch. He also saw me as the weird smart girl that was best friends with the girl he was interested in (now a bridesmaid). We got to know eachother though her and became best friends as well. Things ended between him and my best friend and after what we thought was an appropriate amount of time, started dating that summer after freshman year. We were high school sweethearts. Picture perfect. The football captain and cheerleading captain. Most of our time was spend doing “homework dates” because we really had no other choice! We did our time of break up, get back together, break up, etc. but have always been inseparable. Our relationship is no where near perfect but we are committed to each other and choose to love each other every day. We believe love is not a feeling but a choice and it is by the grace of God that we have stuck together this long and we trust that with God’s leading, we will have a wonderful and thriving marriage. Marriage is one of the most stressful things a person can do to themselves, but we are so excited for it. We are excited to see how God will use us to love each other, where we will go, what we will do, and who we will become.