August 2014 We first met on a grass football field in the fall, EC Lawrence. Bobby had just called for the first team practice for a brand new football team he had organized which included his coworkers and friends he had met through previous teams. After many games, gatherings, and team outings we found ourselves conversating a lot with each other. To be honest it started with venting about how many losses we had as a team and what we can do better, but it turned into learning about each other's hobbies, interests, and personal life. Although we were clearly just friends, it was obvious we loved talking to each other. It was to the point where we were talking on facebook, texting and snapchat all at the same time with 3 different conversations. After a few months, Bobby wanted to test the waters and frequently asked Phuong out and she excitedly always said yes. But she never failed to also invite all the other teammates out. This caused us to be friends for a bit longer than we expected. As fate would have it, there eventually came a time where all the team members were busy except for the two of us, thus we had our first date and as easily as we had become good friends, we eventually became an even better couple.

For some reason, there were a few moments I remember the most in our early relationship, even as friends. The first time we met was at our first team practice. I was in a very serious mood and teaching some of the team members on a few football skills, and out comes this girl in an all blue dress in the middle of a football practice. I was in awe. It was a mix of "she's pretty" and "what the actual heck". Who comes to practice in a dress? Another was when I saw Phuong during a practice with one of our Groomsmen (Chau) as quarterback. Phuong ran a slant route and caught his bullet, with her face. Now I've mistimed one of Chau's bullets before and ended up with a dislocated pinky (it came out of its socket). And here is this girl taking one with her nose, I can tell she was in pain, but she got back up and continued. And I think this left a very lasting impression on how tough I think my fiancé is. The last is when she stopped by my family's house to drop off medicine, snacks, and things while I was very sick. She didnt need to see me, she just snuck in with my family's help, and simply put the bag near my bedside and left. I don't really know why but I think I really fell for her for this. It was both caring and bold to me, if you know my family.

When the team was created, a facebook group was made. I decided to go through all our guy teammates for fun to see if anyone there was cute. Everyone was a swipe left. The first day we met was at the first practice the team had, I wasn’t going to go since I was stuck in a 9 hour training day for work but training ended early. So I decided to go to the practice field so that I could meet everyone before the first game. Which was WHY I was still in my blue dress. All I really remembered from this practice was that someone fell from a hole in the grass. But it was the first day we met! So significant enough. My actual first impression was when we talked to each other on the field about our plays, I thought he had a nice voice. It was very calm and soothing even though we’re losing the game. He left an even better impression when he said he was getting one of my favorite dogs, a corgi! One of the moments where I realized I liked him a lot was when I tore my ACL and he would take a study break and drive over from Manassas to Herndon just to go out and eat with me for a bit. That’s an hour and 20 minutes of commute both ways. I thought he was joking when he said he was coming over. And now, he still has to drive me everywhere when I’m hungry.

Originally, I planned to propose early 2020 but due to COVID I held onto the ring for several months longer waiting it out. During this time several people got engaged which made me look less appealing to Phuong. By November I told myself to just do it, and plan it out the best I could during quarantine. So I told her our friend (who is a photographer) wanted to practice portrait pictures with us on a random Tuesday at the National Harbor, where we had one of our first dates on the Ferris wheel. The weekend before the proposal, I painted her nails, horribly. Got her to pick an outfit to wear and kind of let her think it was a poorly planned date, which we haven't been on for awhile. That Tuesday (10th), we took off on our date which was actually just doing a bunch of things to get her ready for the proposal. Our first stop was to fix her horribly done nails. We rarely do this so Phuong actually ended up patting me down to look for the ring! Luckily I hid it in my nice shoes in the trunk. She quickly gave up on this idea since it would ruin the date if she found a ring and I was proposing, or if she didn’t find one and thought I was proposing. After, we went for food and then to get her some matching shoes for the 'photoshoot'. When we arrived at the the spot near the Ferris wheel, she began to get upset for our friend taking so long and that we were going to miss golden hour. While she was looking out towards the horizon, the sun was setting, the sky was golden, and the wind started to quiet down, and with all my courage I got on one knee and waited for her to turn around so I could ask her to be my fiancé. Although she thought she suspected it, her face showed she was definitely surprised.

When Bobby told me our friend wanted to take photos of us on a random Tuesday, I was suspicious since it was on a weekday. He then proceeded to show me his text messages with our friend but really, it was his sister’s boyfriend sending fake messages. So my guard was down after that. The day of the proposal came and I actually was exhausted from waking up early and taking my mom to her colonoscopy. Once I came home, I just wanted to nap until the last minute so I actually ruined some of Bobby’s plans. We had to quickly grab Chick-fil-A for lunch/dinner and get my nails fixed since Bobby had done a terrible job a few days prior. I also didn’t have the right shoes so we had to go shopping for that. At the nail salon, I thought it was weird that he wanted to get it fixed since we were on a time crunch and I didn’t think there would be close up photos of my hand. So I patted him down jokingly asking if there was a ring. He said no and I just moped. Once at the National Harbor, Bobby forgot to get the parking ticket from the car so he had to go back in. I just thought he was being extra clutzy even though I told him not to forget it already. But really, he ran back to the car to change to his nicer shoes and to grab the ring. I did not notice the shoe change. As we’re walking to the location, I was holding onto his arm and felt that his armpits were sweating. At the location, he kept asking me to take my mask up but I kept refusing so he just snatched it off and then got on one knee. I asked if he was joking with me because I couldn’t believe the day had finally came.