We are both from Oakland, Ca, and grew up in the same city on different sides. We were never friends but knew of each other because of the mutual friends that eventually would be the reason our relationship jump-started. Fast forward to 2010, he came from DC to Los Angeles to visit those mutual friends ( that I was in college with) for spring break and we accidentally went on our first date to The Habit in Northridge. From long distance to right in each other faces, long-distance relationships to moving into our first apartment, We have spent all of our 20’s together still able to live and attend every concert and board a flight for an extravagant trip.

We had been to Hotel Mousai the previous year (2017) for an unexpected, incredibly romantic trip for my birthday, 11/21. While there, Dejon started plotting on how to propose to me and convince me it was a place we should go back to since we had such a great time. I had a rule not to travel to the same places twice, but this place blew me out of the water! Back home, he reminded me often we should do a big group trip with all of our friends and invite everyone to have the last trip before the summer ended. We rounded up our friends but only two ended up coming, in the plans, we had already mentioned a nice group beach dinner, so it was no surprise to me that this was our Saturday night plan in Mexico that weekend. As I walk up to the setup, it was a beautiful beach dinner with two bottles of Moet, which I thought was a whoo hoo since I love champagne! What a beautiful setup. Everything was completely normal, but I noticed he was barely eating his food, thought maybe he wasn’t that hungry. Fast forward he breaks off into a speech directed at his best friend that came to the trip with his girlfriend(who is also very close to each of us with separate relationship), as I chime in showing my love for him as well, Dejon kind of looks at me like “let me finish.” He then turns to me and starts telling me all these fantastic, uplifting things about myself and how I’ve helped him grow and the woman I have become today. In my mind, I'm thinking, “This is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me, why is he doing this.” Utterly oblivious to the cameras recording or the perfect backdrop to a proposal of a lifetime. I start immediately crying once he stood up, and I realized what was happening. I couldn’t believe the execution and detail he put into asking me a question he already knew the answer too.