Sammy and I met during a Duluth SDA church retreat in November of 2016. I was fairly new to the church and didn’t know many of the youths there including Sammy. However, on the second day of the retreat, Sammy approached me as he stated seeing me at church a couple of times, but never having the chance to introduce himself. We connected right away while talking about where we were in our journey with God as well as soccer since we both were planning to try out for our high school's soccer team that following spring semester. After the retreat, we didn't speak much except for when we'd greet each other from time to time at church and church events. Our friendship grew when Rosa (Sammy's niece) asked me to be a dama in her quinceanera court, and I began seeing Sammy every day that following summer for dance practice. We would regularly have conversations and begin to learn more about our likes and dislikes, hobbies, and what our plans were for high school and college. At a certain point in the summer, we exchanged numbers, and we spent the rest of the summer talking long distance due to our attendance at different high schools and churches. After Rosa's quince, our feelings for one another were quite obvious, but neither he nor I said anything. We enjoyed our friendship so much that we decided to stay friends, talk on a regular and hang out at cafes or the mall. After four months of a wonderful friendship on October 8th, 2017, Sammy was dropping me off at home when my uncle asked Sammy to privately speak with him. All I remember was my heart beating out of my chest because we both were unaware this would happen. Sammy came outside and as I was about to ask what happened he confirmed our relationship, and the rest is history!

Puerto Rico was a must on my bucket list for 2023, and in July, I decided to go! Little did I know that earlier that year Sammy was already planning to propose, however, he was unsure of when, where, and how it would happen. He knew he wanted it to be somewhere on a beach or a hike since we both share a special love for God's nature, but he was indecisive. Once he found out that I was going to Puerto Rico, he knew that was the place he was going to propose. He informed me that he too would be tagging along on this trip. At first, I didn't think much of it until I was informed that Kenneth had also booked tickets to Puerto Rico the same week of the trip. As the trip got closer my speculations rose since I kept getting asked questions about rings. However, I had made my final decision on a ring a week before our trip and I thought to myself that there would be no way it would come in time. Once in Puerto Rico, we did so many excursions where we got the see the beauty the island had to offer, and as the days went by my thought of getting proposed to went away. Then on the second to last day of our trip, I had planned to go to Vieques, a small island off the coast of Puerto Rico, which is known for having wild horses everywhere. Before heading out to the Ferry, Sammy came and dropped off a dress stating he wanted me to wear to Vieques because it would look nice for pictures. I began to speculate again, but I kept thinking there was no way the ring would come in on time. As we got off the ferry, Sammy stated he wanted to go to a specific beach in particular, and I found it odd because the whole trip he had not commented where he wanted to go, he had left all the trip planning to me, until that point. I asked Kenneth why Sammy was so eager to go to this beach and Kenneth replied saying that it was the beach where Sammy got stung by a jellyfish during their mission trip. I busted out laughing, thinking there was no way someone would like to return to a place where they got stung by a jellyfish. We jumped in the golf cart and began our journey to this Jellyfish beach. Once arriving Kenneth and Sammy got off and began setting up photography and video equipment. I didn't think much of it because our whole trip consisted of taking videos and pictures left and right. It wasn't until Sammy held my hand and began walking me down the shoreline that I knew it was coming. I hugged Sammy and gave Kenneth the thumbs up as if I was the one about to propose and Sammy told me to turn around because there was a horse behind me. I thought, "A horse at the beach? What could be better than that?" So I turned around to find no horse behind me but only sand and palm trees, and for a second my speculations of the proposal wore off. Upset due to being tricked into thinking a horse was behind me, I turned as fast as I could towards Sammy, and before I knew it, he was on his knee with the ring I took forever to decide on.