The Proposal : Her Story
We have a certain date that we started doing during fairly regularly
the fall of our sophomore year. It’s casual, and we mostly did
this combination when we were feeling really relaxed or really stressed
out (we went the night before every organic chemistry test I think).
We go to Asia Café for dinner, get dessert at the Yogurt Pump,
and then walk to The Bench underneath Davie Poplar and eat our yogurt
there. For those of you who live elsewhere, Davie Poplar is the tree
that the founder of the university planted to be an indicator of how
well the university is doing. It’s attached by cable to several
trees around it so it will never fall, and several of its seedlings are
planted nearby. There is also a clone of the tree in every county in
North Carolina, so it’s a big deal. They say that if you kiss someone
on the bench, you’ll marry them.
So, Charles
nonchalantly suggested that we go on our date on a random Wednesday night
in September, and I agreed. He was stressed out about a big project that
was due soon. When we got to Asia Café, it was closed for renovations
for one night only. I remember Charles being disappointed, and we went
to a Mexican restaurant instead. The yogurt pump went as planned, but
there were people sitting on the bench by the time we got there. This
time we were both a little upset, mostly because our date was not working
out. So we went to our backup spot instead, on the steps of the Morehead
Planetarium that look out over the quad. We talked for a long time, just
sitting there with our yogurt, and then Charles said, “Hey
Virginia”. Usually he follows that with a question like do I want
to study with him for a bit longer before I go back to my apartment,
so I said, “What?
Oh, wait, I know what you’re going to say!” I though he was
getting up to put on his backpack. Instead, he plunked down on the step
in front of me, held out a box, and proposed. I think my mouth must have
been open for 20 minutes before I thought to say yes, but I managed it.
The Proposal : His Story
The timing of my proposal was determined more by geography than anything
else. I knew I wanted Aunt Tammy to help me find the right ring,
and she was wonderful – the ring is exactly what I wanted for Virginia. This
required that I get the ring over the summer on a trip to Grand Island,
Nebraska, in turn necessitating that I wait until this fall to propose
since Virginia spent the summer in Panama (while I was in Cambridge)
and I wanted to propose in Chapel Hill where we first met, and where
we spend most of our time together. The other limiting factor
was that I wanted to ask her parent’s permission first, preferably
in person, which was difficult, as they live in Kentucky. Fortunately,
they came to watch us perform with the marching band several times early
in the semester since it is our senior year. I didn’t get
a chance to talk to them alone, however, until we all met in Clemson
for the UNC vs. Clemson football game. I finally got a chance to
ask them while Virginia was in the shower at the hotel. To be honest,
I was much more worried about their response than Virginia’s, but
they were very accepting.
I decided
to actually propose on a normal school night in Chapel Hill after taking
Virginia on our classic Chapel Hill “date”. When we
are stressed out about an upcoming test or something we usually go to
Asia Café, where
we split a sesame chicken dinner with steamed rice and an order of crab
rangoons. Afterwards,
we go to the Yogurt Pump and eat our yogurt on the bench underneath the
Davie Poplar. I had been planning to propose on Wednesday, September
27 for several days, and I had been carrying the ring around in my backpack
with me all day, intending to switch it to my pocket before dinner. When
we got to Asia Café, we found that it was closed for renovations,
so we went to Q’doba
instead. We got our Yogurt Pump no problem, but our spot on the
bench was taken, so we went and sat on the steps of the Morehead Planetarium
instead. I
decided to go ahead and ask her anyway, but discovered that the ring
was still in my backpack. I somehow managed to fish it out without
her noticing, and went ahead with my plan in spite of everything else
that went wrong. The
most important part of the evening went exactly as I had hoped when she
said, “Yes.”
