How We Met
We went to the same middle school and knew of each other’s existence but in those two years, we never spoke a word to each other. He even sat right in front of me but it seemed like we were never destined to be together. Four years passed and we were now in college. I was finishing up a chemistry exam and I look up and there was this person waving at me. I didn’t have my glasses on so I thought he was waving at someone else and I paid no attention until he came up to me and then said “hi” and left. He then messaged me on facebook that evening and said that we should sit together because we were both loners in this class 🙁 Believe it, it all started with Chemistry lol. We began to sit next to each other and and noticed that we were both taking pre-reqs for nursing school. One day I saw on his iPhone that he was listening to Korean pop music and I was like ‘WOAH I listen to Kpop too!” He was very shy and tried to hide it from me at first, but once we started talking about it, he opened up and we liked EDM and Korean dramas too, and that began our nights of watching dramas through Skype together. As time moved on, we thought of each other more like friends, nothing more. Fast forward six months later and we both were accepted into nursing school. Fate struck again, as we didn’t know anyone other than each other, causing us to sit together during class. As the classes went by, people started to see how friendly and comfortable we acted around each other. We would always DENY, DENY, DENY that we were going out. One day before our exam, there was a study group that we had planned to go to but it wasn’t until 5pm. So we sat in the cafeteria just studying by ourselves. We were catching up on our lives more than studying haha. I realized that I had started to like him again and I wanted him to know that this time, so I blurted out ‘did you know I used to like you back then?’ He looked like he was in shock at first and couldn’t look at me straight in the eyes. I could tell that he was trying to compose himself and after what seemed like forever, he told me that he liked me too. After he said that he just changed the subject. We acted like nothing happened but when we got to the study group it became a different story. I noticed he was acting more playful too me. His jokes, as bad as they were, hit me differently. Was it butterflies? I don’t know but he started to sit way too close, and I was like OMG… Is he trying to make a move? Then when we had a study break. Zack just straight up leaned on my shoulder and pretended to take a nap. All of our friends were looking at us like, what is going on with those two? We left that day and texted/called more often and it felt like we made it out of the friend zone and into a relationship this time. The night before the exam, he texted saying that he’s going to sleep early so I stayed up studying. I got confused when I saw Zack’s name on my phone. Why is he calling? Zack said he wanted to ask me a question but took it back and said that he would ask me in person tomorrow. In my head I was thinking “is he going to ask me out?” So I just told him you better ask me now. You can’t leave me hanging thinking about a question you’re going to ask me tomorrow. And So it began the long conversation of our relationship. After about and hour and a half at 12:40am he asked me if I will be his girlfriend. Somehow with barely any studying done we passed. Everyone that found out said “finally!” We then started the best 5 years of my life.
How He Proposed
You ever get that feeling like “damn I can’t imagine life without you?” Well that happened to me in August 2018. I began to be overwhelmed with these feelings of loneliness when ever I would think of losing her. I would feel as though I had no one. That was when I knew that Melanie was the only one that could give me joy, be my partner for life, and make me… me. I thought to myself, how am I going to do it. More importantly, where??? I wanted it to be meaningful. We lived in Hawaii, which is very picturesque and meaningful, but I began thinking it should somewhere we have never been together. I wanted this proposal to be an entirely new experience for both of us. I originally wanted it to be at Niagra falls considering it’s one of the wonders of the world, but I saw a video about a Brooklyn Bridge proposal by Proposal007 and that’s when I knew it should be in New York City. The lights, the vibes, the food. It was the perfect place. Now the hard part began, asking her mom for permission. Being Chinese, she could only understand so much, so I wrote her a letter and had some flowers sent to her. She called me later that week and my heart was pounding. Was she able to read it? Understand it? Or is she going to say no??? Thankfully she said yes and it was comforting to know that she trusts me to protect her. Now planning how it was about to go down was hard. I knew I wanted it to be through Proposal007, but to do it by the bridge? Times Square? Central Park? All of it would’ve been great but after looking at their Instagram page and seeing the proposal with the heart lights, I knew proposing in front of the carousel with a view of the Brooklyn bridge would be my perfect proposal. Literally the week before we flew out to NYC, I still had nothing planned. I didn’t know how I’m going to ask, what I’m going to say, or how I’m going to get her to walk with me over there. During downtime at work two days before we leave, my plan started coming together. However it all started to change when we actually got to NYC. 20 degrees in March is very abnormal and lets just say, we were DYING. On the day of March 5th, I told her my plan for our anniversary day is to take pics on the bridge, by pebble beach and dinner. When we came to Brooklyn bridge around 4 o’ clock all I can remember Melanie saying is “it’s so cold.” When I was taking our photos she always kept telling me to hurry, that way she can cover her face and put the hood up on her jacket. She was shivering so much but she knew the pics were more important. We spent a lot of time there and by the time we made it to Washington street I was running out of time. Sunset was approaching and I had to keep to my schedule. Did I forget to mention Melanie was wearing her ultraboosts with a dress on. She looked great haha. She literally changed to her heels in an alleyway in the DUMBO area. With her heels finally on the nervousness really kicked in. I was shivering not from the cold but from the butterflies. As we walked from pebble beach to the carousel all I could think about was the past anniversaries we had and by far this was the best. I would get her mind off the cold by reminding her of the how life is so short and how we need to live everyday as if it’s our last. I took many pictures with my own camera so that way she couldn’t see the heart lights until the very end. When we arrived, I could just feel the tears in my eyes and just a drop fall from my face. We both looked in each other’s eyes. I honestly can’t even remember the actual conversation because I was just so happy but also so nervous at the same time. I pulled out the box from pocket and asked “will you marry me.” Gladly she said “yes!”
