10.19.2025

In August of 2015 I met the boy of my dreams. He strode into our 8:00am freshman Philosophy class five minutes late. With his faded dad-jeans, black tank top, worn sneakers, and oversized backpack, I knew from the moment I saw him, he would be mine. Unfortunately cursed with shyness and crippling social anxiety, striking up a conversation with him was out of the question. My genius plan was to try and sit next to him each class and hope he would talk to me first. My first roadblock, however, was that I was always early to class and he was always late… Class after class of sidelong glances and many failed attempts to get his attention, I was losing hope. Then one day, three weeks into the semester, our professor bestowed a final blessing upon me: a mandatory group project. As she announced the guidelines for the assignment, I was already gearing up to ask him to be in my group, until she said, “The groups will be randomly assigned in teams of three.” All my hope, my dreams, my love, gone out the classroom window. We sat there quietly as she listed the names. What were the odds? I thought. In a class of 35 students, probably very low. “Group 4 will be: Madelaine Hsu”, she called out. Then, “Cameron Levin.” I blinked. Surely I heard that wrong…Right?... No way… No freaking way.

The situation leading up to me proposing to Maddie was more complicated than I thought it was going to be. My plan was simple enough: I had ordered a custom ring from a jeweler that Maddie had picked out and I planned on proposing at one of our favorite restaurants, Mai’s Vietnamese. Maddie and I built a part of our loving relationship around the mutual love for food. In the beginning, many of our dates revolved around enjoying the local eateries near our college campus. There was a family-owned Vietnamese Restaurant in town that quickly became our comfort place and it seemed like the perfect spot to ask the very important question. After six months of waiting for the ring to arrive and some complications surrounding the delivery, it was set to be dropped off at our apartment. Coincidentally, Maddie had just left that morning to meet a friend. TWO MINUTES after Maddie drove out of the complex, a UPS delivery truck appeared carrying a box that was absolutely plastered with the logo of the jewelry company that I had to sign for. The jeweler overlooked the note that I had left on the order to ship the ring in a generic box to conceal the branding. But it worked out! The timing couldn't have been any better. Now that I had the ring, the rest was simple. The plan was to take Maddie out on a casual date for coffee and have lunch at Mai’s where I would pull out the ring… as long as I don't ruin the surprise or anything. Well as it turns out, there were three near-misses. First off, I didn't realize I dressed a little too nice for a casual date. I wore slim fit jeans and a nice polo shirt. Usually when we would go to get Pho, I would always show up in sweats and a t-shirt. So Maddie immediately recognized this. She questioned why I was dressing up so nice to go to Mai’s. Now, I'm not a good liar, so I gave her an honest answer without revealing my true intentions. I told her that I was just wanting to look nice on our date. And she said… “Okay!” And this outfit choice leads to my second near-miss. The jeans I wore that day were too tight, and when I snuck the ring box in my pocket before leaving, there was an obvious gigantic square bulge on the left side of my pants. For the next two hours I made sure that Maddie was always on the right side of me so she wouldn't notice. And somehow, thankfully, she didn’t. As we were driving to Mai’s, I started to become paranoid and was going through the “What ifs…”. What if they changed the whole menu? What if they changed their hours? What if it was too crowded and we couldn’t get a table? Thankfully when we arrived the restaurant was exactly how we remembered it. We found a nice solitary spot outside surrounded by beautiful potted plants and flowers. [For some context, whenever Maddie and I go out to eat Pho, we have a tradition to draw a cute picture for each other using the Hoisin sauce and sriracha in their sauce dishes. I was going to write “Marry Me?” with the ring on the table and surprise her that way] The third near-miss was when I asked her what she wanted to eat. She told me she wanted the BBQ pork plate. I started freaking out. My plan revolved around her ordering Pho! I gently convinced her to share a large bowl of Pho with me in addition to the order of the BBQ Pork dish. She agreed. When our server dropped off the sauce dishes for the Pho, I asked Maddie to close her eyes because I was going to “draw a funny picture for her” with the sauces. She closed her eyes, and I took both sauce dishes and wrote “Marry Me?” Which was much more challenging than I thought, it turned out very illegible. When she opened her eyes, it took her a while to realize what the message said. Though once she realized, tears immediately started to form. She said yes, and we both cried while enjoying our massive bowl of Pho at one of our favorite places in NorCal on a beautiful October afternoon. It was quite the day to remember.