We're getting married!

I would've avoided having a partner for the assignment in French class if Ryan hadn't decided to sit next to me and be my partner. I was introverted and he was a confident social butterfly. We’re still the same today. We were fast friends, but it took a couple months to romantically get my attention as I was extremely inexperienced in flirting and couldn't take the hint at all, even though he did buy me sweet tea every day at lunch for that whole time. It should have been obvious to me, but it became obvious when he handed me a hand-written poem in the food court of Chesterfield Towne Center mall asking me to be his girlfriend. I was moved, one because I really liked him and two, because the poem was actually really sweet for a teenage boy. The rest is history. -Katie

I wish I could say I had no idea it was happening, but that would be a lie. I had accidently found my ring holder in Ryan's desk while looking for our polaroid camera and immediately tried to tell myself that I definitely hadn't seen what I thought I did and moved on. We actually never found that polaroid camera. The moment of the proposal wasn't obvious until we were on the beach at sunset with our friends, and everyone was speaking in hushed tones to each other and acting nervous. A light bulb went off in my head, and then I started to get nervous. It was obvious what was happening at this point, but it wasn't like I could say that I knew. It would ruin the moment. I just had to let it play out and continue to do what I had been doing our whole trip which was tease Ryan about how convenient this whole situation was for a proposal and act like I couldn't tell that that's exactly what was happening. He tried to be romantic as we looked out at the ocean, but my suspicious face and teasing kept making him laugh. Moments went by and nothing happened as he turned me to walk back up the beach, and I wasn't upset about that I just thought maybe this had all been an elaborate plan to through me off and the proposal actually wasn't happening right now. I thought, well played. On our walk back up to the dunes he pointed out a shell in the sand to me that was too beautiful to not pick up. When I looked closer, I saw that it read "Will you marry me?". It also held my ring. I screamed like a seagull when he dropped onto one knee and yelled that I knew it and that I loved the ring. When he asked if I would marry him, I said, "I mean-" which was supposed to lead into "I mean, of course." Except the first two words just scared him so I quickly told him yes as many times as I could. So, our proposal happened on the beach at sunset, and I can't think of anything more perfect. -Katie