The Days Surounding My Proposal to Kate (Posted upon Request)!

Shadow_Strider

Oderint Dum Metuant
#1
Some of you asked me to post how I proposed to my Fiancée Kate so here it is, I copied it directly from a forum I posted it at a while ago.

As some of you know already, yesterday my friend of 11 years, and g/f for 3 years, abruptly with out any warning broke up with me. This left me devastated and heart broken, but I worked things out and we are back together. Some of you might want to know what happened, but for you to understand I will need to explain some of the events that lead up to the break up.

So… here it goes… I guess I should start by telling you all that I take a Kung Fu/Tai Chi Chuan class at a local martial arts center, as well as study under my personal teacher Master Huang. I don’t really need the classes I take at the center, I only go there 2 -3 times a week, so I can participate in matches. Anyway Master Huang came to America around 12 years ago, and I met him after he had been living here for about a year and a half. At this point I was 9 and had been taking Kung Fu classes for a year. Master Huang runs a martial arts supply shop and he was delivering some stuff to the place I was learning at. As I was leaving my class I saw Master Huang drop a bunch of papers, so I went to help him recover them. Master Huang was a very independent and stubborn man then (still is) and he asked me what I was doing, I told him I was helping him, and he told me he didn’t need help. After he said this I told him I know he doesn’t need help but I wanted to help him anyway. So after we gathered the papers, he asked me my name, I told him and he then asked how I like Kung Fu, I told him that I love it and I want to keep doing it so I can become strong. As it turns out Master Huang decided he wanted to teach me. He talked to the guy running my Kung Fu classes at the time, and then that guy talked to my parents, and told them that if I wanted to learn Kung Fu, that Master Huang was the best teacher around and that it would be a good idea if they would give me permission. My parents looked into it and after talking to Master Huang decided to let me go to his place for my training. Now it is a little over 10 years later and Master Huang is still teaching me and has become like a grandfather to me.

Ok that’s how I met Master Huang, so now I can better explain what happened the other day. It all began on Friday, my g/f went out with her friends for a girl’s day out, and they left around 2:00 pm. At around 5:30 I got a call from one of her friends and she said that my g/f wasn’t feeling good and they were on their way to bring her back to our place. When she got back, she looked really sick so I suggested that she check her temperature. Turns out she had a fever of 101, so I helped her into the bed and took care of her. Her fever was off and on but she was sick in bed until Monday afternoon. The whole time she was sick I stayed at the apartment and took care of her. When she felt better which was around 3:00 pm on Monday, she seemed different, like something was bothering her, but I put it off as just her still being a little weak from being sick. This brings me to Tuesday, I got up at 9:00 am, and I was getting cleaned up and ready for work which was at 11:00 am. She was up at this time and she seemed to be acting a little mopey, but when I talked to her she said she was fine. I then went to work and got back at 3:30 pm, when I got back to my apartment my g/f was not there, which I didn’t think anything of it at the time. It was now 5:20 pm and I haven’t heard anything from her since I last saw her before I left in the morning. She then comes home at 5:40 pm, and tells me she wants to break up with me. I asked her what was wrong, and she said she didn’t have feelings for me anymore. I then called a bunch of my friends and told them what just happened and asked if they knew anything that I didn’t. Turns out they were just as shocked as I was, because we all grew up together and new each other since grade school, this goes for my g/f as well. When no one knew what was going on, I decided to go to her parent’s house and ask them if she talked to them. When I got to her house her sister was in the front yard. So I talked to her and asked her what was going on, she said she couldn’t say, so I asked her if her sister (my g/f) ever said anything bad about me to her, and she told me she has heard nothing but great things about me. I then asked her if she knew where she was, and she said no, but I could tell she was lying, because she looked like she was hiding something, so I told her thanks and that I was going to continue searching. This brings me to today, I left my place at 8:00 am, and went to some of my friends places, but no one knew anything and were worried as well (There are about 14 of us who have been very close since grade school and 6 of us are actually dating each other, there was 5 couples but then 2 of the couple broke up, but we all are still friends.). I was running out of ideas, and then my g/f’s sister called me, and decided to tell me were her sister was, because she thinks her sister is making a mistake. After she said that I was like What the Hell is going on. So anyway I find out my g/f’s at one of her friends place (which happens to also be a friend of mine who is dating another one of my friends). So before I went to see my g/f I called my friend who’s g/f, is hiding my g/f. I asked him why he didn’t tell me, and he said he hasn’t even heard from his g/f since 4 on Tuesday. After that I went to see my g/f, I got to my friends house and knocked on the door, and my friend answered. When she saw it was me she said thank goodness you’re here, and that she has been trying to talk some sense into my g/f since Tuesday night. I asked her what’s going on and she said that I need to talk to my g/f. So I went inside and my g/f was in our friends bedroom and it looked as though she was crying. The first thing I asked her was “what have I done to make you not love me anymore”. She said I didn’t do anything. I then asked her “then why have you stopped loving me.” At this point she started crying. I told her that I loved her, and that I have since I was 15, and that her leaving me was the worst thing that has ever happened to me, and that it is destroying me inside. She then said she was doing it for me. Which when she said this I was dumbfounded. I asked her “how can her making me suffer so much be helping me.” Her response was that she didn’t want to hold me back. She told me that she heard about a job offer I had, gotten, on Thursday, and that I declined it. When I heard this everything started to make sense and I was pissed, relieved, and happy at the same time. What happened was that on Wednesday I got a call from my boss at the Martial Arts center, and he told me that a competitive martial arts team wanted me to join them and compete as there Kung Fu/Tai Chi Chuan spot (the team was made up of different styles of martial arts), I wasn’t that surprised to be offered a spot on the team due to Master Huang telling everyone of his buyers that his student is a prodigy (This is what Master Huang says, I don’t think of myself as a prodigy). Well I kindly declined the offer due to I would have to travel a lot around the country, and I was happy and content with my life as it is now. I made the mistake of forgetting to tell my g/f about this, and all she heard from our boss was that I declined an amazing offer to become a member of a martial arts team. So the whole time she was sick and sad she had been thinking about this, she came to the conclusion that she was holding me back, and that I would be better off if I went. Ok getting back to the conversation between me and my g/f. I told her that she has never in the entire time we’ve known each other held me back at anything, instead she has been my greatest help and that if it weren’t for her I wouldn’t be who I am today. I told her that I did decline the offer, but I never even thought of accepting it, and that my happiness lies with her. After I told her this she start bursting into tears and I held her in my arms and told her that I loved her, and she said that she has never stopped loving me.

And that’s pretty much what happened during the past few days. Right now she is getting cleaned up because I told her I want to take her somewhere tonight. I haven’t told her where so at 8 tonight I am picking her up

I have made a decision, these past few days have ultimately strengthened our relationship and I know now more than ever that I want to spend the rest of my life with her. So tonight at 8 I am taking her to the park where I first fell in love with her. I was 15 and she was 14 ½ so we were in the same grade a bunch of us were at a local park by us and I was sitting on a bench by myself questioning myself. My g/f came up to me and sat down next to me and asked me what was wrong. I told her that tomorrow I had my first real match and that I wasn’t sure if I could win. She told me that she wasn’t worried because she knows I will win, and she said that she believes in me and knows I will give it my best. She also gave me her ring she wore all the time she told me it was he good luck charm, and she said that she wanted me to have it Now everybody always told me I was good, but she is the one who made me believe in myself, and because of this I changed for the better. She gave me the confidence I needed, and if it weren’t for her I might have lost my match. Now 2 years after that I was at another match and she and some other friends were there, and after my match, I finally got up my nerve and asked her out, and the rest is history.

So tonight I’m going to propose to her at the same bench in the park. She doesn’t know but I have held onto the ring she gave me and have kept it in a special place all this time. So I decided I am going to propose to her with this ring (now this is a very sentimental ring, it was for her, and me. But when I have the money I plan on letting her pick out a ring, but for now I am giving her the ring that first brought us together.)

So yeah that’s what happened and hopefully by 8:30 pm tonight I will be engaged.
-------------------------------------------------------

Well... I'm Engaged! and If you want to know how it went, get ready for a pretty long read.

I could not have asked for it to go better than it did. I left my apartment at 7:43pm and got in my car, I then called my g/f's father’s cell phone, and told him to meet me outside, 3 houses down from his house at 7:50 (it only takes 4-5 minutes for me to get there by car). Of course he asked me what was going on, and I told him it was important and to not let anyone know where he was going, he said ok. So I got to the street that my g/f’s house is on and I stopped my car 3 houses down. Sure enough my g/f’s father was there, and it was hard not to laugh because he was trying to act all sneaky. Anyway he asked me what’s going on, and I told him a how I felt about his daughter and that I would like his permission to marry his daughter. He looked at me straight in the eyes and asked me if I’m ready for that kind of commitment. I told him that I’ve never been this sure about anything before and that I give him my word that I will always love his daughter. He looked at me for a few seconds without saying anything (I was kind of worried because it was 7:57 and I was supposed to pick up my g/f at 8:00), and then he smiled and said of course I give you permission to marry my daughter, and that he couldn’t be happier, because his seen me grow up from a little kid into a respectable man, and know that I more then anyone will make his daughter happy.

Hearing this from him made me feel so happy and proud, and I must say I had to hold back a tear. Now you all might be wondering why I waited till the last minute to ask my g/f’s father, well I only decided I was going to propose tonight after talking with my g/f at 5:20, and also when I called Master Huang at 7:35 pm, and told him what was going on, he told me to ask her father, and that if I didn’t I would be a disrespectful [Chinese word], I’ve picked up some of the language from Master Huang, but not enough and from knowing Master Huang I can guess it was something along the lines of dumb ass.

So anyway I got to my g/f’s house and it was 8:03 pm, but her dad went in first and started a conversation to make it look like he held me up when I got there. My g/f heard me talking to her dad and she came down stairs from her old room (now it her sisters) and she looked beautiful, I have never seen her looking as radiant as she did at that moment. We said bye to her parents (sense we were back together and we have an apartment together), and we got in my car. We arrived at the park at 8:20 pm, and she looked confused, and asked why we are at the park, I told her I wanted to show her something. So we walked through the park and I took her to the bench I was telling you all about. There was still some light out and the sun was setting. We sat down at the bench, I put my arm around her and held her close, and I asked her if she remembers this place, she said of course all of are friends and us would come up here a lot during grade school through high school. I told her that this was the spot where I first fell in love with her, and how she was the one who made me believe in myself.

I told her that everything that has happened these past couple days have only strengthened my feelings for her and that I never want to lose her again, because I loved her more than anything and that losing her is the only thing that would hold me back, because without her I have no reason to go forward. She embraced me and told me she has never felt happier than she has now, and I said I hope what I’m about to do makes her happier. When I said this she looked up at me, and I reached into my pocket and pulled out the ring she had given me on the day I was talking about. I held her hand, and looked into her eyes (which at this point were sparkling from the tears that were building up), and I told her that she once gave this ring to me and said it was her good look charm, I said that, she was only half right about that, and that it must be my good luck charm as well, because it has made me the luckiest man in the world. I then proposed to her by saying “I love you, and I want nothing more than to spend the rest of eternity with you… Will you marry me?” She said Yes and embraced me, and than we kissed, and I just held her in my arms for a while. Then we got back to our apartment at 8:55, and now she is taking a bath.

So yea I am now engaged to my best friend, and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with her.
-----------------------------------------------------

Thank you everyone for your encouragment.

I was talking to some of you last night/morning, around 3:00 am, and I am surprised to say I actually got around 5 and 1/2 hours of sleep. My fiance was done with phone calls at around 3:05 am (I know it is late for phone calls, I tried to tell her... she didn't seem to care.) Anyway we got to sleep at like 5:30 am. I was thinking I was going to be woke up at like 9 am, but I was pleasantly surprised, I woke up at 11 am and she still sleeping with my arm around her, and her head on my chest. So I just lied awake for a little bit, thinking and remembering about all that has happened within the last week. I found myself just looking at her face and she just looked so peaceful, and I realized something, I have finally found inner peace. It is like I have found what I have been searching for... But anyways I'm getting to sentimental.

So yeah she woke up about 10 minutes later. She saw what time it was and she like jumped out of bed, I asked her what was wrong, and she said we had to be at my parent’s house at 12 pm. Apparently the 5 people she called last night, was my mother, her mother, Master Huang, and 2 of our friends. She told them (excluding Master Huang, she just called him to tell him to be there) to tell everyone to come to my parents house at 12 pm, because we had a very important announcement. Yeah this was the first time I heard about this lol. So she was running around the apartment getting stuff together, and she said she was getting in the shower. I said ok, I'll take a quick shower when she's done, but she said there was no time, and that we'll just take one together... I was like no arguments there lol.

Ok so we got to my parents house at 12:10 pm, but it was ok since only a few people had gotten there, and the rest came shortly after we arrived. Now I knew there would probably be a lot of people there, but I was blown away at just how many there were. I mean its Thursday at 12:00 pm, you would think people would be busy not to mention the short notice... and by short I mean, they had to of only had like a few hours notice lol. I have never seen so many of my friends an family in one place at the same time, my grand parents, my family, her grand parents, her family, Master Huang (I'm surprised he showed up, he doesn’t normally enjoy crowds), and our friends (which was all of them, the 14 of us that think of each other as family, we haven't all been together in like 2 months due to college and work and other things). So yea it was definitely a full house, and my mom who always goes overboard when people are coming over, had like enough food and drinks to last a few days lol. Anyway my fiance, gathered everyone up and we went out back on the deck. I could see that she was anxious to tell everyone, so I just stood next to her and held her hand, and let her make the announcement. When she told everyone I proposed to her, she described everything that I had done, she even memorized what I said to her. The reaction was pretty much what I expected, everyone was exited, both our mothers were tearing up, and hugged each other (they have become good friends since me and my fiance (I know I might be overdoing the "fiance" thing but I don’t care it's awesome to say it) started dating), our friends were like congratulations, we knew it was only a matter of time.

Then my fiance's father told everyone how I asked his permission to marry his daughter, this just got all the older people there (by older I mean parents age or up) all happy and emotional, they were telling me how respectable that was and that I am a good man for doing it (I gota thank Master Huang for this one, he knows what’s going on lol). I forgot to tell my fiance about that, and she teared up again and hugged me saying it was romantic (so yeah again props to Master Huang lol). After that everyone was just talking to each other, our families were telling each other welcome to the family and all that stuff, and our friends and us went to an old spot in my back yard we used to hang out at, and we just started talking about old stories of stuff we did when we were kids, it was really nice to have all of us in our circle again since like I said it's been a while since all of us were able to hang out as a group like we used to. This party lasted for about 4 and 1/2 hours, and then we got back to our apartment at like 5:05 pm. I am on the computer obviously, and she is actualy in the bedroom sleeping.

Well that's what happend today, I thought I shold tell all of you sence I told you all everything that lead up to this. So yeah that's about it.
--------------------------------------------------------

We have been talking a lot lately, and we have come to the conclusion that Ohio is getting boring, so when we graduate college and after our wedding we want to travel. I believe our first destination will be China, because Master Huang has recently been telling me that when all the chaos in my life has settled down, he would like to take us to where he lived, and show us the temple where he grew up and studied Kung Fu. I was surprised he suggested this since he hasn't been back to China ever since he came to America 12 years ago, and since I know why he left China in the first place, I feel honored and grateful that he wants to take Kate and me with him.
Well that's how it went and I still remember every second of it like it just happened.
 
#2
oh my God! it's so sweet... I got teary eyed... Congratulations to the both of you.I was like reading a romantic book or like watching a movie starring Keannu Reeves and Sandra Bullock.... :D
 

Shadow_Strider

Oderint Dum Metuant
#3
lol thank you, I typed the post directly before leaving to propose, then the next one a little bit afterwards so they were fresh in my mind and it was really easy to create the posts.

It was funny because after the proposal and we came home we did some things and at like 1 am she was calling friends and family to tell them about our engagement lol. I was like tell them in the morning they're sleep its "1 am" but she didn't seem to care... she was on the phone till 3 am lol. Then we didn't go to bed until 5 30ish.
 
#4
damn shadow strider!! you're so lucky.
not to mention that i cried reading all this. and not just teary eyes but actually crying.
it's the best love story i have ever read!

congrats to the both of you!!!!
 

Cruss-kun

Pokemon Master
#12
So, sweet. So, lovely. You really knew what to do. Congratulations, and have a great life with her.

So, sweet. So, lovely. You really knew what to do. Congratulations! You're one lucky man. xD
 
Last edited by a moderator:
#13
I don't like reading it as it reminds me how lucky you are and unlucky I am >.<

But I'm happy for you, your an awesome and classy guy so I'm happy for you ^_^
 

seirei

kumo no you ni
#14
congrats! this is almost like a tale! I think it's wonderful that you could live this in the real life!

and the same as the thread's name ,'life is what you make it' , I hope that you and your fiance will build a lovely and long-lasting relationship!
 

Shadow_Strider

Oderint Dum Metuant
#15
Thank you all very much your kindness is very touching :)

And yup life is what you make it, thats a motto I've lived by for as long as I can remember. I take life like Martial Arts its one big fight with yourself and if you don't give it your all, you will lose the battle. But on the other hand if you fight with all your heart and give it everything you have and more then your on the right track for victory.

If it's one thing I've learned its that life goes by so fast and it's too unpredictable, because of this there is no time to feel sorry for yourself or mope around when things aren't going your way. If you have a problem face it head on because you won't know the outcome until you do.

My life has been one battle after another and I've had a lot of hard losses, but I keep fighting and moving forward. When this whole ordeal with Kate came up I wasn't about to give up without a fight, especially not on Kate, because giving up on this fight meant giving up my happiness my future, my everything.

Anyway enough with that, thank you all very much and again I'm truly happy to receive such kindness.