How We Met
Jacob and I met while going to chiropractic school together. I was a couple trimesters ahead of him, but the school is so small that everyone pretty much knows everyone, or at least faces look familiar. I started noticing him around campus more and more, but my favorite place to run into him was at the gym (it’s always nice watching some hottie lift heavy weights). One weekend, I was down visiting family in North Carolina and a message popped up on my phone saying that Jacob replied to my Instagram story. Classic move, right?! Some guy you kind of know, but have never really talked to, slides into your DMs. We started talking more and more, mostly about school and passing along my old notes from classes, to working out together, to finally dating.
How They Asked
For the last two years, Jacob and I have split time with family over the holidays- Thanksgiving with my family, Christmas with his. Each year for Thanksgiving, my family goes to Long Island where my mother grew up. While we are there, we always visit a couple places- one of them being Avalon Park in Babylon, NY. In the park, there’s a spherical sculpture called “Cartas al Cielo,” or “Letters to Heaven.” On Friday, November 29, 2019, Jacob and I went with my family to visit and walk through the park in the morning. We got to the sculpture and Jacob and I took out some paper and pencils to write our letters. At some point after writing for a bit, Jacob told me he messed up his letter and pretended that he needed to start all over again. I was just about finished mine so I began to walk to the sculpture to place it in when he grabbed my hand and said he had something he wanted to read to me. Jacob began reading a letter he had written to my uncle. Jacob never met my uncle. My uncle passed away, unexpectedly, about a year before Jacob came into my life. This uncle was one of the strongest male figures in my life and always said (in his thick New York accent) that he would be the one to give his approval on any man who thought they wanted to marry his niece. This uncle was also the uncle that told me to tell him if anyone broke my heart… Jacob kept reading to me about how he never met my uncle but how much he wish he did, how he felt like he knew him, how much he wished he could have a drink with him, how he wished he’d get his stamp of approval. He read this letter to my uncle about how much he loved me and how he would never hurt me. He kept reading and when he finished, he took my hand. Jacob looked at me with tears rolling down his face and kept telling me how much he loved me. Then he reached into his pocket, pulled out a cloth jewelry bag and knelt down. I don’t even think he could say anything before I started to hug him and kiss him. He had to push me away to even pull out a ring. When he pulled out the ring, he was so nervous that he dropped it (which also makes this story so much more real). He quickly found it, picked it back up and asked me to marry him but when I looked down at the ring he was holding, I was absolutely shocked to see it was my grandmother’s engagement ring.