How We Met
It all started with a swipe on Tinder one Sunday afternoon. This guy looked cute, and I noticed we worked at the same company. I was just an intern there, so I was dying for any chance at a full-time job. I swiped, started a casual conversation, and agreed to lunch a few days later. We met up for lunch, and after instantly clicking, I knew it had to be more than a potential future “in” at the company. We bonded over a few more meet-ups within the week, but a few days later I was heading back to school to finish my senior year! Eugene and I were obsessed with each other, and he actually came to visit me a week or two into school (4-hour drive for him!). We saw each other a few more weekends and talked endlessly until we realized we started dating without an official start date!
We stayed together during all of my travels: Eau Claire, Washington, D.C., and Madison. It wasn’t until our fifth year together that we lived in the same zip code. Otherwise, we lived 30+ minutes away from each other. During all of these years, Eugene put in a lot of effort to visit me on the weekends. His favorite memory of visiting me was when I lived in D.C., and we decided on a whim to head to NYC for a few days. Lesson learned: never take a car through New York tolls ($$$).
We share extreme wanderlust and a passion for traveling. We have visited 17+ states together and over eight countries, including India! We most recently toured Europe over winter break, where we hiked in the Swiss Alps and Eugene proposed in Prague (more to come on that in a bit)!
On the weekends, we fell in love with each other as we explored the outdoors. Our most important and special memories were formed over s’mores, hiking, and state parks. My most laughable memory with Eugene and the outdoors is when he convinced me to hike the Grand Canyon- down and up- in one day.
How They Asked
On December 31st, 2018, New Year’s Eve, we went to catch the sunrise at the St. Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic. Eugene had actually wanted to propose in the previous few countries during our trip but couldn’t connect with any photographers. I thought it was weird that Eugene was so adamant about watching the sunrise at the bridge! At this point in the trip, I was really tired and wasn’t super into the early departure time. Nevertheless, he convinced me to go!
While on the bridge, he was hoping someone randomly on the bridge could assist. The first person he asked didn’t even know how to work an iPhone. I had no idea why this was SO frustrating, but now it all makes sense. After watching the most beautiful sunrise, we walked towards the water with a little bit of cotton candy sky remaining. Little did I know that this photo would be the last one before the proposal! I was kind of sprinting towards the area because the sunrise was on its way out, and I had to get some good pictures, of course. Eugene said he knew then that that’s when he had to propose officially, and he followed me running trying to get the ring out of his pocket.
He started saying all sorts of sweet things and fell to his knee, asking for my hand in marriage. At this point, I blacked out and started to bawl hysterically (literally looked like the meme of Kim Kardashian crying). I apparently said yes, because I don’t remember. Thankfully some thoughtful man from Atlanta caught a few photos of our moment and rushed over after it was done to show us! His camera was apparently in some different settings that didn’t make it perfect for this kind of shot, but either way, I’m SO thankful we have some photos of it. <3
