How We Met
On the days we were scheduled to read our English papers in groups, Sam would leave his usual seat and find his way to my side of the classroom. We were both Writing majors at our University who became well-versed in each other’s writing, but strangers otherwise. It wasn’t until our grieving over the Haiti Earthquake in 2010 that we had our first conversation and learned we share the same Haitian ethnicity and both have family who were affected.
After that, I realized we shouldn’t have been strangers at all. We both worked in the cafeteria and were in our school’s drama club. He was a complete nerd! I laughed at him more than I did with him until he charmed his way into my heart. He courted me. Our next play as a drama group was Midsummer’s night dream and our director saw fit for Sam to play King Theseus and I, Queen Hippolyta. We’ve been making memories together from then until 5.5 years later when we had some issues and broke up…but that wasn’t the end of our story.
how they asked
9 months after our breakup I pursued her again. I knew I wanted to marry Thaina but the “how” evaded me. I didn’t want to half have her anymore so on September 17, 2016, I’d ask her to be my Queen forever. Finally, the day came and I had it all planned out. I contacted a photographer friend to do a photo-shoot with her in a “garden type setting”.
What she didn’t know is that I would be hiding around the bend with her family and friends waiting to surprise her. I ducked away from the shoot and went to change into my suit. I sent her friends out a few at a time: the plan was for her friends to act like nothing was different and encourage her to keep shooting. After her friends all came out, her family and I followed along with a violin player that played “Thinking Out Loud” by Ed Sheeran.
I chose this song because we had broken up around the time the song originally came out. She loved the song when it first played but it was attached to bad memories so from then, even though we had been together for months at this point, she still didn’t like the song. I knew that I didn’t just want to create new memories; I wanted to re-forge old ones if I could.
After her family came out it was time. I had a long speech prepared, but when I saw her standing there in all her beauty I only had one thing to say. Will you marry me?
