"You need to go talk to her!" Kat insisted as she pushed me towards the table behind ours at the karaoke bar. I had intended to stay home that night, alone, but my friends showed up at my door and convinced me otherwise. With the encouragement of that friendly shove I walked over to talk to the girl who moments earlier had been doing far more laughing into her microphone than singing. We chatted a while, until she ran out the door to take pictures with some people dressed up in animal costumes, one of which happened to be her brother visiting from overseas! Since she was a distracted whirlwind of excitement, I continued talking to her karaoke partner, who I learned was her cousin, and not her boyfriend. The night began to come to an end. Before we parted ways, Maggie regretted to inform me that she couldn’t give me her phone number because she didn’t have her phone with her that night. I saw right through her evasive tactics and gave my number to her cousin instead, hoping that it would get passed along. Luckily she messaged the very next day. After several scheduling conflicts we finally met for our first date. Maggie was early, for maybe the first time in her life, and I was late, for maybe the first time in mine. We talked for hours, until the coffee shop closed and we were forced to say goodnight. We both recognized something special about each other and that night was the beginning of everything.

It was a very hot summer day and not exactly the best weather for a picnic, but why should that stop us? I picked Maggie up from work with a packed picnic basket, ready to drive to the top of the hills overlooking the city and the bay. We had just gotten back from vacation and I told her I wasn’t ready for it to be over. The winding roads reminded me of one of our first dates when Maggie convinced me to get in her car late at night and sped down country roads covered in thick fog to a hill overlooking town. She told me that in high school, she and her friend would jump out of the bushes and scare the couples who parked there. Fortunately, there was no one there that night to scare us and we enjoyed the moment undisturbed. The night of our first kiss was a nice memory as we pulled over and I led Maggie up a steep path to a secluded spot with a single park bench. The view overlooked Berkeley, where we kept our relationship strong despite the 200 mile distance, and Oakland, where we have a little apartment together. From that point up in the hills we could see places filled with memories and imagine our future together. I told Maggie how, a couple years earlier, when we had been spending time with my parents while they were visiting Yosemite, my mom had pulled me aside and handed me a little box. She told me that she and my father could see that I was in love and that, while I may not be ready yet, I may find myself needing the contents of that box sometime in the future. Inside was my grandmother’s ring and all that it represented. I held onto that box, always knowing who it was for, but waiting for the right time. The time had come and I couldn't wait any longer. Whatever life had in store for us, we would face it together. I pulled out the box, showed her the ring, and got down on one knee to ask her to marry me.