We're Getting Married!

I never would have imagined I was going to meet my future husband in Spanish class. It was 2010 and we were sophomores at Fox Valley Lutheran high school. I wanted to look up a word "en Español" but didn't have a dictionary of my own. I turned around and there he was, with a dictionary. Now, I didn't ask nicely. I snatched it up, hoping he didn't mind. As you can imagine...he did. He promptly asked for his dictionary back, to which I replied "no ingles" (no English). He asked for it back in Spanish...to which I said no. "Hey, that's in English," he cried. To which I retorted, "No es no en Español". (No is no in Spanish). I eventually did find the word I was looking for and gave the book back to him. Throughout the year I would borrow it many more times, but asking permission from now on. As our high school years went on we found lots of similarities between us. Whether it was mutual connections or our sense of humor, Josh and I gravitated toward each other and soon became best friends. We enjoyed making many memories together: A Capella choir, bad ball (a game played with a warped ping pong ball he invented), Chemistry class, school dances, study hall, a rendition of the story of Allen-a-Dale, a certain golf outing, seeing The Hunger Games when it first came out, and hanging out at football games. It was easy for anyone to see we had a special bond.

I was sitting on the loveseat of our home, waiting for Josh to come back so we could watch Netflix together. He and I had been doing some cleaning, we were having a house warming party the next day. Josh had told me he had a surprise for me and had gone into the bedroom. I had jokingly asked if it was a puppy, and he told me I would see. He came out of the bedroom with his hands behind his back, and my stomach immediately tied itself into knots. Was he going to propose? "Look what I found when I was cleaning," he said revealing a small worn book with a familiar cover. I couldn't believe it. He had kept the actual Spanish dictionary I had taken all those years ago. The book that got us talking. "You kept it! That's so sweet!" I exclaimed. "You can keep it this time if you agree to my one condition," he said handing it to me, "open it". Inside the dictionary, Josh had cut out a box to place my engagement ring in and had placed a paper asking, 'Marry Me?' After I had read this and opened it up, I looked up and he was on one knee. I laughed, I cried, I shouted yes! That was the start of our forever.