How We Met
I first met Shadi when I was 12 and he was 15, back in 2008. There was a youth camp my cousin was planning in Sydney so we flew up from Adelaide for that, little did I know I was going to meet the guy of my dreams. Shadi and I hit it off right away and added each other on MSN (hahaha I don’t think that’s still a thing). We talked for ages every day for two years without thinking anything was going to develop from this friendship. In 2010, we officially became a twelvie couple, the first date we went on was pancaking on the rocks with a group of our friends in Sydney because I convinced my family to fly up there for the Christmas of 2010. After almost 3 years of doing long distance, I decided to call it off since I really wanted to focus on graduating high school. It wasn’t the grates time but I felt I had to do it for me! 2 years went by with Shadi and I not having any communication at all until I saw him again. My brother and I flew up from Adelaide to Melbourne for an event, and little did I know Shadi was going to be there too! We saw each other again and my heart was beating so fast. I knew I still felt some type of way about him which was weird because we didn’t know anything about each other for 2 years! I called my mum right away and told her all the feeling I had, and she told me “I think you still love him, don’t put up walls, you ran into him for a reason and this might turn into something great. You never know until you try.” So, with those wise words in my mind I went up to him, and in the middle of the event we sat down and talked for hours on end as if no one else was there. It was amazing. I was ready to go all in, I knew he was what I wanted and who I wanted to be with, but unfortunately, he did not feel the same right away. We both acknowledged feelings were there but it took almost a year for Shadi to let down his wall again, (which is understandable, since I completely broke his heart the first time around).
how they asked
Mid-year 2016 Shadi told me about his work friend named Cliff, a very talented artist. Since I love art I was very interested in everything Cliff did. In April 2017 Shadi told me that Cliff was having an art exhibition in Adelaide for the month of August, so we can go check it out together for my 21st birthday. On the day, Shadi took me to our favorite place to have breakfast, he was acting super weird, but I just put it down to something he must have eaten. We finished breakfast and headed over to the next planned activity for the day, which was the exhibition. I was so excited to see all of Cliffs work and finally take Shadi to a gallery! We walked into the shop front and the proposal coordinator, Kay (who was pretending to be the gallery host) explained that there are videographers and photographers taking photos and interviewing guests for Cliff’s website (this was all completely normal).
As we walked into the gallery there were already people being asked questions but little did I know they were just fake actors pretending to have a look around so I didn’t suspect anything. We were interviewed next, talking about how we found out about the gallery. We walked through and the other people left. The first photo was a community hall, the community hall Shadi and I first met in. the photos were all images of memorable places for us, but nothing really clicked until near the end. I had a feeling something was up the whole time but I didn’t want to get my hopes up (just in case aha). We kept walking and every photo was just becoming more and more relatable, and that’s when I started crying. We finished walking around, he turned to me, held my hands and said the most romantic speech ever, then he asked me to be his forever, and of course, I said yes!
It was such a great idea for a proposal. I am so happy he thought of it all himself and that my proposal co. were there to help him bring his idea to life.
