On my first day of high school in September 2012, I noticed a boy in my art class sitting a few feet away from me. He was tall, long-haired, and lanky, with the most beautiful hands I had ever seen. For the next nearly two years, I couldn’t stop thinking about him. Every time I passed him in the hallways or saw him on the bus, I’d get embarrassed. I was too shy and anxious to talk to him.
It was so bad that it took me months to confess this overwhelming crush to my best friend Jade. After I told her what his very unique name was, she shrieked and immediately whipped out her middle school yearbook over FaceTime. It turned out she had gone to school with him for nine years, and he lived on the other side of my neighborhood all along.
It wasn’t until spring 2014, our sophomore year, that I finally decided to bite the bullet. After he posed in our figure drawing class, I caught him in the hallway and showed him the drawings in my sketchbook. I remember blurting out, “Sorry I drew your butt weird,” before running off, immediately losing the courage I had worked up.
That line seemed to do the trick. The next day, he started taking the bus home with me, and after a brief and shy friendship, we became official on May 17th, 2014. I couldn’t believe it.
Blaise and I have been through practically everything together, and grew up alongside each other. I cannot imagine navigating life without him. On January 20th, 2025, he proposed to me in a photobooth as the camera caught my genuine surprise and joy.
I am so excited to marry him twelve years after our story began. Turns out that having a gigantic, all-consuming crush can pay off.
When I first saw Emma, I thought she was so cool with her flowing long blond hair and her messenger bag adorned with a million pins. She was this gorgeous girl who walked with intention and felt completely out of my league. She was always there in the background of high school life, taking the same bus route as me, sharing some classes with me, the same homeroom. I’d never thought I’d get to know her until the day she broke the ice.
I was puzzled that she would approach me out of the blue just to apologize about how she drew me in class, and thought I’d make an effort to speak to her in whatever way my confused teenage mind could muster. When I saw her waiting for the bus after school, I went up to her with the most confidence I could find… and asked her about the weather.
We took the bus home together almost every day after that. When I finally asked her to be my girlfriend, it felt like the whole world froze in place when she said yes. We shared our first kiss shortly after, and I couldn’t believe this was happening. I was already in love with her, but little did I know she was already in love with me for two whole years.
We grew up together, got through high school and college together, and it felt like everything was falling into place when we moved in together.
I bought and hid her engagement ring for months waiting for the right moment to propose. I could have never imagined how perfect it ended up being. When we were waiting for our turn to take our pictures, I asked Emma: “What if I proposed to you in this photobooth right now?” She didn’t believe me, and thankfully I had a big scarf on to hide the huge dumb grin I had on my face. I’m so lucky to be with Emma, and even more lucky that I get to spend the rest of my life with her.