How we met
Our story started long before we ever realized. We grew up in the same hometown, but my family and I moved away when I was in 8th grade. We had always known of each other, but never personally knew each other partly because he was a grade older than me in school. I went to college with one of Josh and I’s mutual friends from our hometown, and she actually formally introduced us to each other. Josh came to our school one weekend to “visit our mutual friend” but really it was to meet me.
We met each other briefly that night, but my friends and I went to a different bar shortly after that. I didn’t think anything of it because I had no idea he came all that way just to meet me, but when my friend told me that the next morning I felt terrible. I didn’t have Josh’s number so I messaged him on Facebook apologizing for leaving so early. That Facebook message quickly turned into texting and the conversation just never ended. On our first date, we were talking about our hometown and discovered that Josh lived one street behind mine our entire childhood lives. To be more exact, there was roughly 500 feet between his backyard and mine. It’s funny to look back and think that we lived so close to each other for so many years and never had any idea.
how they asked
Josh suggested that we go to Chicago one weekend to visit some friends of his that live there. Chicago is a 6 hour drive from where we live so I was hesitant at first but ultimately agreed to go. He said that his friends were busy during the day on Saturday so the two of us could do our own thing and then we’d meet up with them Saturday night. I thought to myself that we could go shopping to kill time before meeting up with his friends but I never mentioned it to him beforehand.
On our drive to Chicago Josh told me that he got us tickets to go to the planetarium. I thought it was kind of weird that he didn’t ask me if I wanted to go there given that we’ve never talked about it, but being the science nerd that I am I thought it’d be fun and didn’t think anything else of it. The planetarium in Chicago sits right on Lake Michigan and the view is gorgeous. After we were done at the planetarium, Josh suggested that we take a walk down by the lake. As we are walking, he suddenly takes my purse off my shoulder and sets it down on the ground and pulls my hand towards the center of the sidewalk. I thought he was going to ask someone to take our picture, but he started telling me how much he loved me and other things I don’t remember because I was in shock when I realized what was happening. The next thing I know, he’s down on one knee asking me to marry him.
I said yes, and as he stands up I hear loud cheering. I turned around to see both of our families and friends standing right there. I was so surprised to see everyone there that I didn’t even realize at first that our friend who is a photographer was also there to capture it all.
I couldn’t believe that they all traveled to Chicago just to be there for that moment, and it meant more to me than I could ever put into words. We all went to dinner afterwards to celebrate and then Josh and I went out with our friends that night. It was the most thoughtful proposal, and more perfect than I could have ever dreamed.
