How We Met
Kenny & I ate high school sweethearts of 9 years. We met performing in our school’s musical as sophomores. We were instant best friends and became inseparable. By the time summer before the junior year rolled around I started crushing… hard. It wasn’t until Kenny asked me to junior year homecoming in the fall of ‘09 that he considered we may be more than friends.
One week later he asked me to be his girlfriend and we’ve been together ever since. We went to 2 more homecomings and 2 proms together. We conquered 4 years of college long distance together. We conquered early adult life together. And now we finally live together! And better yet, Kenny’s a teacher now at the high school where we met. It’s funny how life comes full circle like that.
How They Asked
I knew from the time we first considered marriage that Kenny was going to be hell-bent on surprising me with his proposal. And he definitely succeeded. He planted tons of decoy plans in the months of April & May so I’d have no way of knowing how or when he’d pop the question. Saturday morning on April 27th, he asked me to get brunch in the city with him. Some friends of mine were suspicious that he could be proposing, but I shot them down. He was being way too casual. He asked what I wanted to do after brunch- go to a museum? Grab drinks? Head home? There was no concrete plan so I assured them there was no way he was proposing. We had an hour to kill before our reservation so we wandered Barnes & Noble, and then a farmers market, and finally Rittenhouse Square Park. Kenny told me he had bought me a present at Barnes & Noble he wanted to give me and asked if we could sit on a bench. Out of the bag, he pulled, not a gift from Barnes & Noble, but a wish box.
A wish box I had given him 9 years ago when we were 16 and dating in high school. “Okay, so this isn’t from Barnes & Noble,” he said. “But I do think it’s about time to give this back to you. I don’t know if you remember, but you gave this to me 9 years ago and told me to write my biggest life’s wish and put it in the box, and I wasn’t allowed to open it or my wish would be lost forever and wouldn’t come true. I’ve never opened it, and I’ve held onto it for the last 9 years.” He took my hand and stood me up, then pulled out a picture of us from when we went to homecoming together as juniors in 2009.
“Back then we were just two goofy friends going to homecoming together, and I don’t think I had any idea that night that someday we’d grow into who we are now. But I do know I’ve been waiting to ask you a very important question for quite some time now.” Then he got down on one knee- and asked me to marry him! I obviously said yes. Fortunately, his brother and his brother’s girlfriend were hiding around the corner snapping pictures for us. He gave me a promise ring on our first ever anniversary, promising to marry me. 8 years later, I took the promise ring off, put the engagement ring on, and locked the promise ring away in the wish box. (His wish came true, by the way. And so did mine.)
