2012 was the year... Carla was attending Park University and Marcus transferred from UMKC soon after. We first officially met at a baseball house party where we were introduced by a mutual friend, Tre. Carla came over to greet Tre and I thought she looked good! We shook hands and exchanged names leaving the party with a ton of curiosity. Just a few weeks later, our mutual friend Coop thought Carla was someone I needed to meet due to our love for battle rap and he was adamant on making that happen. We were both at the cafe after our practices and Coop introduced us as promised. When I saw her I said to myself, "Oooh that's her from the baseball party". We reintroduced ourselves and talked about our favorite artist which turned into a friendly debate! From that day on we managed to run into each other at the dorm spades nights, parties, and 2k game nights. Even though we were at the same functions we never really had a chance to talk one on one so Marcus extended the invite to bring the newly released Think Like A Man DVD (in true Marcus fashion he fell asleep LOL) if Carla provided the TV. Our love for basketball and music truly drew us together and years later, we are officially becoming one!

(Marcus' Prospective) -This is a day I'll never forget! I reached out to Carla's sisters, Krystal and Sherrie, about helping with this special day;I truly appreciate them for that. Carla believed we were going to dinner that evening since we were so busy working, and I thought it'd be cool if we had a night out together. Weeks leading up to the proposal included a ton of planning with trips to her mom's house after work, ring shopping, nail checks (Carla has always said she wanted them freshly done whenever it happened) , and walk throughs at the proposal location. It's so hard to surprise her and I'm really surprised that I finally got her! (Carla's Perspective) As we get out of the car to what I believed to be dinner, we walked down the stairs heading to the canal area where all you could hear was Beyoncé's 'Hello' playing loudly. For a second I thought, "there's restaurants out here that play music, let alone Beyonce?". He held my hand as we walked along the canal towards an actual restaurant where there were rose pedals and tea lights leading towards the door. I thought wow, this is romantic! Marcus then looked at me and said there's a plot twist and immediately I was shook. He then walked me into the courtyard area with a heart shaped candle display formed in the letter J for Johnson. Soon after my nieces and nephews came out from hiding one by one each with envelopes showing some of our most significant memories. Tears began to fall, my family and friends came out from hiding, all while Anita Baker's 'You Bring Me Joy" was playing softly in the background(1 of my favorite songs). Marcus gave a very heartfelt speech confessing his love. This moment was more than I could have ever imagined and was by far one of the best days of my life. The proposal not only moved me, but it touched hundreds of thousands of people being that it went viral! Such a crazy experience, but I can't wait to sound old explaining to our kids, mom and dads' viral video (so millennial!) .