March 8th, I said “YES”! Actually I said, “Is this a joke? This mean you my fiancé?” Before we get to the details of our engagement, let me start from the beginning! Mike and I knew of each other, smiled, said hi, and just went on with our lives back in 2012. I remember going with Meg to one of his art shows. I thought he was cool, but didn’t think twice. I was about to graduate grad school, and move away for another long season. In 2016, I came back to the states and right before heading back to Honduras, Meg had an engagement pool party. There I dressed as my hippy self, not cute, but confident! I sat with my feet in the water, and Mike sat next to me. It was the most comfortable chill conversation, he made an impact! So I go to Celia and I am like, “so is Mike single? She then gave me the play by play and told me exactly what I needed to do. I grabbed some beers, asked Mike for a ride home. When he pulled up to where I was staying, I was like, “so I got these beers you want one?” We sat, talked, and a few days later went on our first date. We sat outside at Royale, moon was so bright and big. I look up at her and I ask Mike, “do you like the moon?” His response is why I knew he was the one I was gonna marry! I moved to Honduras, he played it cool, but he drew me in. May 17th I moved back to Saint Louis and we started dating. The week leading up to March 8th, Mike asked if I wanted to go to the Native American water ceremony. It happens weekly on Sunday mornings to honor the water, native tradition, and send out prayers. It was going to be a nice weekend. We went out early, found a spot, it was just the two of us. We walked toward the river, open lands, blue skies, with the sun beaming on our faces. He is taking pictures of me, then he looks at me like normal and says, “Can I ask you a question?” I say, “Sure babe, you can ask me anything.” That’s when he got on one knee and asked me to be his wife. And I asked, “Is this a joke?” It wasn’t, HE PUT A RING ON IT!