In 2016 I decided to take a solo road trip to go visit my best friend Marilyn and her husband in Florida for 4th of July weekend. We decided to have a beach day, and Marilyn so happened to take a picture of me to which she posted on her social media. Vincent responded to the picture asking about who I was, and I told her that I wasn’t interested in a relationship. In that point in my life I was just trying to better myself and focus on finishing school. A couple weeks later out of the blue I received a friend request from Vincent on social media. I immediately texted Marilyn asking if she was behind him friend requesting me, and of course she denied it (sneaky sneaky). I approved out of curiosity and shortly after he “Dm’d” me as us young folks say. Come to find out he had just moved to California a couple months before for his new orders after completing recruiting in Houston for THREE YEARS (just my luck I KNOW). After a lengthy conversation we finally exchanged the digits. We texted for hours on end and it eventually led to face-timing on a daily. Slowly but surely, he broke down my guard with the littlest things that he would do for me. He would stay up with me to help me study for tests, call me when I would get off late until I made it to my car, and much more. He finally came into town for Thanksgiving, and it felt like I had known him my whole life when we first locked eyes at the airport. There was no awkwardness at all and we had that instant connection. Shortly after I received a bouquet of flowers to my workplace, and I remember thinking it was really sweet. When I read the card I completely melted. It ended with, "Don't worry I will wait until this long distance is no longer." Three years later of dealing with long distance, we’re stronger than ever. We’ve gone through so much in so little time, and he has more than proven that he is here for the long haul. I can’t wait to marry my best friend and to finally put this long distance behind us.
Since the beginning of our relationship I have tried time and time again to convince Vincent to go skydiving with me. He never agreed to it because he stated that I had already done it, and with him being in the military he had too. One day he finally agreed to it, but he said it would have to be somewhere besides Houston. I made sure to keep that in mind. I flew to go see him in California for the military ball, and I had already booked skydiving tickets to go the following day after our ball since TECHNICALLY we weren’t in Houston anymore (evil laugh). Well little did I know he had something else up his sleeve. Turns out after I bought the tickets and sent him the confirmation it had all the information for the skydiving place. His sneaky self called right after that and requested for the proposal package. The day came, and I was so incredibly excited because if you know me I am the biggest adrenaline junkie! I could tell he was nervous so I struck it as a little odd. What marine would be scared to jump out of an airplane? He gave me this incredibly convincing lie about how the skydiving is different from what he was used to, and that he had never done freefall skydiving before. I was so excited that I believed it lol. Of course he jumped first then they had some random guy jump right after. I remember thinking “Aw man I wanted to go next.” Little did I know that it was all part of the plan to buy Vincent some time! Finally it was my turn and I could not stop smiling! Before landing all I remember hearing was my instructor saying, “What does that sign say?” I immediately responded with, “What sign?!” As I looked up I read, “Will you marry me?” on this HUGE banner (that I somehow missed) and with Vincent down on one knee. I instantly started ugly crying and I felt like the last three years of emotions came rushing to me all at once. It was such a perfect day, and I wish somehow I could relive it all over again!