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"I went into work one Wednesday and I was asked by the principal to accompany the 4th grade class on their field trip to the Albany International Airport. After a few more questions, I realized it was to monitor the boys bathroom. Anyways, to my pleasant surprise, the field trip was being led by the Education team from the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), specifically Zorelly. I had an instant crush. Zorelly says that she barely remembers me even though I had to clean up vomit, console a child having a panic attack, and being yelled at by TSA. I don’t believe her. Being a man of very little confidence, I was too nervous to talk to her so I thought that would probably be the last time I saw her. Luckily, it wasn’t. That Friday we saw each other at our local bar, The T, and sang some karaoke. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I met my best friend that night." - Andrew

“A couple months and a terrible first date later (ask Andrew about it), we decided that the hours of talking and joking around were worth it. Flash forward to 2020 - 4 jobs, 4 apartments, and 2 adorable nieces..it’s been amazing. I’ve learned to love his Berkshires everything-in-its-place attitude, and he my Puerto Rican you’re-loud-let-me-be-louder way of handling things. We laugh at people being stupid, we cry with good movies, we love Portland ME, we watch New Girl and Parks and Rec on repeat. Five years together in May 2020, and we cannot wait for the next 10, 15, 20..." - Zorelly

"It’s kind of a weird story and hard to explain, but I’ll try my best. Zorelly and I love this movie director, Taika Wiatiti, and we really wanted to go see his newest movie, “JoJo Rabbit”. We ended up having to go to Albany, NY to see this movie, an hour away from where we live (that's how much we wanted to see it). We were both truly moved by this movie which hit on topics of missed opportunities, lost love, what’s truly important in life, etc. (if you get an opportunity to see it, you should!). Well, I was so moved that I started contemplating my life. And I decided, right there in the Crossgates Mall parking lot with tears and snot streaming down my face, that I needed to ask Zorelly to marry me. I didn’t want to wait another second. Now, I didn’t just decide right then to ask her to marry me because that would be completely insane. What I actually decided to do was to move up plans that I had been setting in place for about 6 months. My plan had been to wait until December when we went to Puerto Rico to ask Zorelly’s parents for their blessing and then come back, get the ring, and then ask her to marry her at a spot I had long ago picked out (more on this soon). So instead of giving myself all this time to prepare, I decided to jam all of this into a weekend. I had no ring, barely an outline of a plan, and no one knew about it. So still in Albany, I looked at Zorelly in my freezing cold car in a dark, P.F. Chang’s parking lot and asked her if she would go on an adventure with me. I told her she couldn’t ask where we were going or what we would be doing, but to just trust me. She said, “of course!” If you are still reading this, I’m sure you are wondering, “where is this dummy taking her?” or “she really wants to marry this guy?”. I will answer the first question with a long, drawn out, overly detailed story!" - Andrew Want to finish the story and find out how he actually proposed? Read Part II! (sorry - I told you it was long!)

"Several years ago, Zorelly and I took our first vacation together. We hadn’t gone on one our first year together because I was a long-term substitute and she was finishing her internship at MASS MoCA. In other words, we were broke. We chose to go to Portland, ME because we both love food and we could drive there. We were so excited to get there after the 4-hour drive. Zorelly had planned out our entire trip. Where we would eat and visit, and on what day. I threw a wrench into that Day One. For those of you who don't know me, I’m a huge Celtics fan, and it was the playoffs. I needed to watch them take on the Atlanta Hawks, but I knew how much this trip meant to her so I tried to keep it quiet. But she found out, threw out her itinerary, and ran downstairs to ask the valet guy where we could watch the game. It might sound silly to you, but it meant so much to me. So, after struggling to understand the valet through his thick Maine accent, we found our way to a terrible sports bar. We ended up having a wonderful time, with questionable nachos and too much to drink. The next day we both woke up feeling awful. So we dragged ourselves out of bed, grabbed some pastries from our now favorite bakery, and went to this remote beach. When we got there we realized it was a launching point for fishing boats (SUPER romantic), but we sat on a bench and she made me eat because I was feeling so awful. In that weird moment, I knew I wanted to marry her and when I asked, it would be at this grungy little beach because at the drop of a hat she was ready to throw out her plans and go on a strange adventure with me no matter what, as long as we were together. That has never changed. Fast forward a couple of years to Albany. We again decide to go on a dumb, crazy adventure. I decide that we will go to North Adams to stay at my parents for two reasons: 1) It will be a shorter ride to Portland, ME. It isn't. 2) I will be able to tell my parents what I’m about to do." - Andrew

"The next morning we get in the car. Very early. Around eight. And if you know Zorelly, she hates getting up early. But, she’s sticking with me and still has no idea what’s going on. The first two hours of the ride go smoothly. It’s not until we start seeing signs for Boston that I start hearing, “We are NOT going to Boston””I don’t want to go to Boston””I’m really nervous that we are going to Boston," even after we see the sign ‘Welcome to New Hampshire.' It wasn’t until we crossed the Maine border that she put together where we were going, but not what I was planning to do. Her only question was, “Are you taking me to HoneyPaw for lunch?” Yes hon, we drove four hours for lunch. So, we get to the beach (remember? from the flashback?). Let's set the scene. It was super windy and it was November, so it was wicked cold. The beach, for some reason, had quite a few people on it. I saw a secluded spot where we could go. I was excited to find this quiet spot, but my excitement quickly dissipated. Like I said before, this beach was a launch point for fishing boats. As I’m about to start my speech a truck starts backing up towards us. The guy gets out and starts loudly loading lobster traps into the back of his truck. I wasn’t starting out great because I didn’t have a ring. I was very nervous already, but then the ice cold wind made me start shaking. I start talking and it’s a bunch of jumbled non-sense. I’m getting emotional because I’m blowing it. So standing in front of Zorelly is a crying, shaking man who’s speaking gibberish. Then I grab her right hand (wrong hand) and get down on one knee. At this point, she gets what's going on. Thank God I got the reaction I was hoping for. She pulls me back up into a huge hug and says, “yes!” She then says to me, “We need to go because we just drove four hours and I really need to pee and there’s no public bathrooms here. And can we go eat a HoneyPaw because I’m starving?”" - Andrew