VALDOSTA STATE MAGAZINE 83 Kelly Gordon, someone he saw every week in class. “I stalked Kelly on Instagram and found pictures with Heather in them,” said Wildes, a 22-year-old history major from Folkston, Georgia. “I tried to play it cool, and I interrogated her about Heather.” Robinson, a 22-year-old healthcare administration major from Valdosta, had seen Wildes around campus, too, but she only knew him as “that football player I think is cute.” The mutual friendship with Gordon soon led to Robinson and Wildes hanging out in a group of friends. Numbers were exchanged, and by December 2015 Wildes asked Robinson out to dinner. She liked him. He liked her. They officially became a couple in May 2016. “I knew that I loved her when I brought her home that summer and my family just took to her,” Wildes said. “They started asking me, ‘Do you think she could be the one? Are you going to marry her?’ I knew at that point that she had passed the family test. She excelled on every test that I threw at her.” It took Robinson a little longer to realize that Wildes was the one. “It definitely took me longer to say ‘I love you’ than he did,” she said. “I guess I was a little scared to say it. But once I said it later that summer, it was a crazy mix of emotions, and at that point, I definitely saw myself with him for the rest of my life.” By September 2016, Wildes was saving money to buy a diamond. He asked Gordon for information on Robinson’s ring size and preference. “I had already asked her what time of year she would want to get married if we were to get engaged,” he said. “She said late fall, so from my interrogation of her, I kind of knew when I wanted to propose.” The first week of October 2017, Wildes and his best friend went to Zale’s Jewelry at the Valdosta Mall and picked out a ring. “I’m not the best at keeping secrets,” he said. “Holding on to that ring for as long as I did without her finding out was a miracle.” Wildes chose to ask the question at a home football game near the end of the 2017 season, his last with the team. “I wanted to do it at the game because it was the end of one chapter of my life and the beginning of another,” he said. Leading up to the game, he secured the blessing of Robinson’s parents and devised a ruse to set up the proposal without her suspecting it. He told her that he had won the football team’s Senior of the Week Award — an award that does not exist. He wanted her on the field with him during the ceremony. “I totally believed it, and I was so excited for him,” Robinson said with a laugh. She only became suspicious when she found out all of her family would be at the game. There were other hints as well. “He told me to get my nails done,” she said. “That was the big thing. He said we would take pictures after the game, but he never tells me to get my nails done.” Wildes said he had to ask her about the nails because she always told him that he better make sure her nails are perfect before the big moment. I knew that I loved her when I brought her home that summer and my family just took to her. — BRENT WILDES “ “