How We Met
Evan and I met in 2013 our senior year of high school. We had an AP European class together— this was actually our first class together. Evan and I were and still are the complete opposite. I was a social butterfly in high school and was ASB Vice President. Evan was in all the advanced classes and spending his free time coding or building computers. It was no surprise that the only class we had together was in our last year of high school.
Evan sat across from me and it wasn’t until midway through the year where I really noticed him. Something about the way he carried himself and the sparkle in his big blue eyes made him irresistible. Of course he had no idea that the forced laughters and smiles at him were my way of flirting (side note: he has never been in a relationship before me so he was definitely clueless. lol) Finally, I told one of my girlfriends who were in the class that I thought he was cute— sure glad I did because this is when things started coming along. As I continued to get his attention with forced laughters in hopes he would look over at me one day he finally SMILED back! My heart literally jumped out of my chest. Those smiles turned into a game of who can catch one looking at them first. Somehow he got my number and that’s when the texting and calling came into play— butterflies were permanently in the stomach. It was December and our school hosted a gingerbread making event after school and for Evan, this was the perfect time to make a move. He mustered up the courage to ask if I wanted to make gingerbread houses with him. Of course, being a 17-year-old girl I had to play hard to get and said I was already going and will just see him there. Anticipating that he was going to be there, at 3:10 pm the bell rang and I hurried over to the cafeteria. And there he was with his perfectly blue eyes and the biggest smile. As we laughed and teased one another on our gingerbread houses it felt as if the world stood still and it was just him and I. The fun continues as we didn’t want to part ways. We decided to go to the movie event our school was hosting that night where we watched Elf and ended the day with the biggest smiles on both of our faces. The rest is history—we graduated high school, made it through college, living out our dream jobs and manage to stick by one another.
How They Asked
It has been 5 almost 6 years since we made those gingerbread houses—fast forward to now and I just finished my first year of teaching and Evan done with his first year as a software engineer. We knew we needed a vacation, a break from the crazy year we have had in the “real world”. We planned a trip to Thailand and Japan. The only thing I wanted to do was to see elephants—to go to a place where it was ethical and sustainable not ride or harm them. Elephant Jungle Sanctuary in Phuket was the perfect place.
When we got there the tour guides wanted to speak with Evan to make sure the info was correct which I found strange since I booked it. But I didn’t think much of it because I was in the presence of ELEPHANTS! We started off learning a bit about the elephants then straight into feeding them. I volunteered to help record data about one of the elephants, Moomi. At this point it was hot and I still was in disbelief we were here. They wanted us to take a group picture with the elephant before ore getting into a mud bath with them.
One of the guides asked Evan and I to take a solo pic with the elephants. I thought because I volunteered they wanted a couple pic—this is when I started getting suspicious. Everyone in the group was confused and so was I. Then my heart stopped as I saw Evan reaching into his pocket and get down on one knee. At this point, I could not feel my face and everything was in slow motion, would also like to point out that we were surrounded by elephants!!!!! He started saying “We have been together for 6 years now and…” Before he even finished I screamed “YES” and jumped into his arms. Surrounded by these amazing creatures in Thailand and saying yes to forever to my high school sweetheart — it felt like an absolute dream. And am still.
Little did I know Evan was planning this for months sneaking around to meeting with my parents, finding the perfect ring, and emailing with the sanctuary.