Grad Stories 2019: The Proposal
Talk about a story with a familiar ring to it.
When 2017 SAU Homecoming king A.J. Petersen made plans to propose to queen Sarah Jacob, he suggested she paint her fingernails power blue, and, unbeknownst to Sarah, invited friends and family to the Homecoming football game to see him drop to one knee and produce a shiny diamond engagement ring. Sarah's big surprise came off without a hitch, although even she realized in retrospect that she'd missed a significant clue: What kind of guy suggests painted fingernails, let alone in powder blue?
Well, apparently, a St. Ambrose romantic looking to pair the big question with a milestone occasion. That kind of guy.
Enter Tanner Atkinson on the morning he and Anna Kvidera were set to receive their SAU Bachelor of Science degrees - in Nursing and Exercise Science, respectively. Tanner first proposed the nail polish, and he and Anna set off with their roommates and friends for the time-honored practice of photographs on the campus.
"I was taking pictures with some of his roommates and then he came up to take a picture with me and got down on his knee," Anna said, still excited a few hours later as they readied to collect their degrees at the TaxSlayer Center. "And I was like ‘What?'''
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What else could it be but the proposal of marriage Tanner had been plotting since December, when he asked Anna's father for her hand in marriage on trip to her hometown of Traer, Iowa?
Tanner said graduation day just made sense for the couple's engagement day. They became friends the first night Tanner moved onto campus as a sophomore after commuting to school from his hometown of Camanche, Iowa, as a freshman.
"We met the first night and I thought, this girl is amazing," he said. "We started dating a few months later. Now, that I'm moving out, I wanted to be with her forever."
Forever may have to wait until Anna, who combined her initial year in the SAU Doctor of Physical Therapy program with her senior year in exercise science, completes her DPT degree. Tanner will busy himself with a nursing job in the pediatric department of Genesis Health Systems in the meantime.
Like Tanner, Anna said it was clear from the first night they met she and he would be Ambrosians together for a lifetime. "We sat and talked all night," she said. "We knew it was meant to be."
Only one of them knew the big question was coming Saturday morning, of course. Although, come on, Anna. She and Tanner were in the stands the day the Homecoming king proposed to the queen with the shiny blue nails. For the record, Tanner swears he didn't know that A.J. also had suggested his future fiancée paint her nails.
"It's a beautiful color,'' Anna said, flashing both nails and her new diamond ring. "It's St. Ambrose."
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