How We Met: Alex and I grew up in the same small town but somehow never encountered each other. After he graduated, he had moved himself down to San Diego to attend San Diego State University which contributed to us never bumping into each other. He ended up adding me on Facebook after seeing me on a mutual friends list but we never spoke.
On my 22nd birthday, I noticed that I had a Facebook message from him telling me happy birthday. I thanked him and we started talking and getting to know each other. We discovered that we shared a lot of the same humor and had similar interests, so he pitched the idea of meeting in person the next time he was in town. I was apprehensive, since he was still technically a stranger and I had just been broken up with a few months before and wasn’t looking to start anything new.
However, my mind started to change after we finally sat and talked over coffee at our local Starbucks. We were there so long the employees had to ask us to leave so they could close up! He truly impressed me with how intelligent and driven he was to succeed in life and I knew I wanted to spend more time with him. We carried on a long distance relationship for about a year and a half with him driving up to see me every month or so. After that point, we realized we wanted to take our relationship a step further and we decided I would find a job and move in with him in San Diego. And so it goes, we’ve been together since then.
how they asked: Alex has been away in Quantico, VA completing Marine Corps Officer Training (The Basic School, or TBS for short) for the last six months and was not due to be home until the end of this month. So when my friend Katie invited me to the beach in La Jolla for dinner and shopping, I didn’t think anything of it. We had just gotten down to the water and were standing underneath a beautiful island-style gazebo watching the waves crash when I felt arms around me and a voice in my ear.
At first I thought someone had mistaken me for someone else, but when I turned around Alex was standing right there in front of me, looking so handsome. I was so shocked that he was actually there it took me a few moments to realize he had gotten down on one knee and was asking me to be his wife.
I couldn’t decide whether to laugh or cry but I immediately said yes. It turns out he had coordinated the whole thing with the help of Katie and his two sisters, who he had been hiding in the bushes until I got there. He had taken special leave from his training to be able to fly out to surprise me and kept it a secret even as we were texting throughout the day. The entire proposal was perfect and so was the ring he chose. I’m so excited and I can’t wait to spend my life with him!
