What starts as a romantic proposal story, ends in hilarity and a swift look into the true depths of realness when you make a life commitment to another person. Daniel and I decided to spend the week in Saint Simons Island, Georgia, as our summer vacation. Towards the beginning of the trip, we planned to hike Cumberland Island, a completely uninhabited wild island just south of where we were staying. That morning, we took the ferry to the island on a beautiful but scorching hot Georgia Day. Cumberland Island is like a jungle with a few hiking trails, the ruins of a 19th-century mansion, camp sites, untouched beaches and wild horses. As soon as we got off the ferry, we booked it straight into the forest, hoping to leave the other guests behind and make some quick headway. We hiked straight up through the center of the island, past giant palm leaves, a scuttery armadillo, banana spiders (as big as your hand!), and every tree and vine you can imagine. We were headed for an outlet trail on the north side of the island, one that cut east out onto the beach. After about 2 hours of straight hiking (much farther than anticipated!), meeting a wild horse and several reapplications of bug spray, we made it. (I for one looking amazing, drenched in sweat and bugspray, for the proposal I didn’t know was coming) As we stepped out of the undergrowth onto the sand, we saw storm clouds rolling in, but stopped to eat our packed lunch. I think it might have been me who decided that a driftwood log would be a comfy spot to eat our sandwiches, so we sat down and ate.

After we were finished, we stopped to take in the scenery: a perfect beach, no one there but us. The thunder rolled behind us, and I looked back to see the storm clouds closing in on where we were sitting. It began to rain, but because we had hiked so far on a hot day, it was a welcome, cool, refreshing rain. It felt amazing. When I looked back at Daniel, he was pulling something out of his pocket. He opened the ring box and the rain was coming down so hard, I started to laugh. It was truly fitting that Daniel asked me to be his wife while sitting next to me, equal partners, looking out together in the same direction. I said yes in the pouring rain. (And also cried a little.) Since the storm clouds were directly over us at that point, we decided to head back down the beach to the ferry. As we were leaving, I said, “you know, I have always wanted to find a whole sand dollar. I’ve never found one.” We took about ten steps, and there in the sand at our feet was a perfect sand dollar (no joke). It felt like a blessing. Once we got back to our AirBnB, we cleaned up to go get dinner. After getting out of the shower, I noticed little dots all along my ankles and legs. I looked closer, and screamed, “Daniel! I’m covered in ticks!!!” Sure enough, the nice log I had picked out for our lunch spot was infested with them. And we were both covered. After checking each other over, we both burst out laughing at how decidely un-romantic it was to come back from an engagement covered in bugs. But ultimately agreed that, to spend a life together was to go through gross times, awkward times, sad times and weird times, to really see each other up close and completely vulnerable, and still laugh together through it all. Yes to the beach moments; yes to the tick moments; and yes to everything in between. (Also we got checked and have no ill effects from the ticks.)