Lauren and Alec Deichman attended WSU from 2011-2016, where the two studied nursing and finance. They took a chance on each other and made it work, even when their engagement almost did not happen. 

Lauren said she and Alec were heavily involved in Greek life and met through mutual friends during several social events. 

“We met fairly early on, I think we met freshman year, probably a week into school,” she said. 

Despite meeting so early in their college careers, Lauren said she and Alec did not have an initial romantic interest in each other and remained friends for quite some times. 

“Midway through sophomore year — I think [Alec] asked me on a date dash, and I said yes,” she said. 

Although Lauren said Alec was the first one to ask the other to the Date Dash, he disagrees and said she was the one who initially asked. 

“We have conflicting opinions on who asked who,” Lauren said. 

After their first Date Dash, they soon went on another one together, and about two weeks later, followed with an ice cream date downtown. 

“He asked me out as we were walking home, and I kind of shot him down,” she said. “I was like, no, I’m gonna be going to nursing school next semester, I don’t think this a good time to start a relationship.” 

Alec said he gave her time to think about it before giving him a solid answer. However, when Lauren met Alec’s mother on mom’s weekend soon after this date, she changed her mind, and they started their relationship together. 

“I honestly think she solidified my love for Alec. I met her and was like, this is the woman that seems like she would be the most awesome mother-in-law,” she said. 

Time went on, and Lauren and Alec continued to date, even when Lauren went on a medical mission trip to Tanzania for two months. 

During her trip, Alec said they used Skype, email and Facebook to communicate when her internet access allowed them to. 

“Once we got through that, we were like okay, now we can do pretty much any long distance,” she said. 

Alec graduated a year before Lauren, as her nursing program took a bit longer than expected. He said he had been working for about 6 months and was ready to propose to her. 

“It was a few days before Christmas and there was a huge snowstorm. We had the whole big plan, family, friends were going to come over to my parent’s house,” he said. “She was driving over from Wenatchee [he lived in North Bend], and got caught in a snowstorm, and she and all of her family and friends were a little bit behind her.” 

Alec said Lauren arrived, and they went out to dinner, but the rest of her family was not stationed at his parent’s house by the time he was supposed to take her there, so his family told him to stall. 

“He told me we really needed to go to the store to get eggs for tomorrow morning, and I’m like, why do we need to do that right now? Can’t it just wait?” Lauren said. 

Eggs in hand, the two successfully made it back to the house after Lauren’s family and friends had arrived, and the proposal was a success. 

Lauren and Alec still have strong WSU ties, as they still celebrate game days from their home in North Bend and try to come up to Pullman as much as possible. 

“We have a one-year-old, so we didn’t get to any games last year, but at-home tailgates and Cougar football Saturdays are definitely a big big day in our house,” she said. 

Alec said the WSU community is truly something special, and he feels lucky he was immersed in it with Lauren. 

“I’m just super thankful God led me to that school,” Lauren said. “I wouldn’t be with this guy here today, and I wouldn’t have my daughter, so I’m just very thankful for that.”