Like any other guy in my shoes, I was clueless. I had ideas, but most of them involved working out for some reason. I had the ring. But didn’t have a plan. So I asked for help. Marcos was definitively the planner. Dude had a lot of time to think about this sort of stuff apparently lol But nothing stuck. So back to square one. The next part was fun. I was let go from my job at the time. I now had to depend on Jennifer and in our savings. Two new ideas I was anxious about. When I started panicking, Jennifer would calm me. She was optimistic. By that time, our first “family” vacation with Matthew was coming up, and it couldn’t have come at better time possible. (light-bulb!) So much time by the beach, so many pools and best of all, Excaret! Matthew was going to be AMAZED!! He wasn’t. What he liked the most was our hotel’s in-door pool 😐 But that didn’t matter. We were together as a family. On our last night we had a fancy dinner by the beach. Reservations were booked and a plan was thought out. This was the time to shine! Speech was in my mind, servers were in their places, everything on “queue.” The server brought a flower arrangement surrounding the ring and placed it in front of Jennifer. Jennifer was anxiously jumping in her chair as her radiant smile filled her face and eyes began to tear up. But Matthew had another idea… Matthew SHOOTS across the table and snaps the ring before Jennifer or I can get to it and says, “LOOK MOM, IT’S A RING!” Well, there went my surprise lol I’ve never seen Jennifer move that fast in my life to snatch that ring back! Next thing I remember, I was in one knee explaining how a pure heart and soul like hers captivated me. She, who loves me unconditionally and who transformed me into someone I was proud of again. It was how I knew I always wanted to live a life with someone like her who challenged me to be better. For her. For me. For our family. Next thing I knew… I was writing this memoir.

July 2015, I walked into SMQ for an interview. As I waited in the lobby for the Partner and Office Manager to call me in to the conference room, I noticed a guy who had nothing to do, but walk up and down the hallways. I thought to myself, "wow, this firm must not be busy if there's enough time to roam the halls." I went in for my interview, got the job and started working at the firm. On my first day, the Partner I was working for called me into his office to tell me that I would be working with a new staff member (not the one they original told me at the interview), this staff member was nonetheless, the guy who was roaming the hallways when I went in for my interview. In my mind I said, "Great! Another slacker." Little did I know that I was about to find another individual who matched, or better yet, surpassed my work ethic. Its safe to say my perception of him changed quickly. With time or work relationship, turned into a friendship, then our friendship turned into a romantic relationship and now we're getting married.