He got down on both knees

(Hi, this is a long post with pictures )

I never planned on publishing a post on my engagement and I realize that the timing is probably overdue, but I decided to write it down to one, hold on to the memory (on another space), and two, give friends/family/anyone who might be (oddly) interested in how it happened, according to me. After all, his account is only half of the story.

My story starts at the beginning of 2010, just when it rolled in and something in my heart was decided: a new season was coming. To put it bluntly, I was ready to leap for the big M. This of course, was something I kept between myself and God; and since I am of the female species, that included one of my closest friends. Though I had opened that up to her, I made sure it was to someone who wouldn’t tell him this lest he be swayed or manipulated into diamond shopping. (I now know she really didn’t divulge.)

Come February while I was at Bangkok on an assignment, I had dreamt two consecutive nights of a proposal and woke up remembering only three things clearly on both nights: a proposal, near a body of water, my barkada (translated: group of friends). On the first night I got up so quickly and didn’t know what to make of it till I decided it was probably just absence making my heart fonder and my dreams wilder. After the second dream however, all I could utter was “Lord…?” You see, my clear dreams are usually not just recesses of my brain waves. Through the years I’ve come to realize that it is one of God’s ways to tell me something important. Of course I had no idea when it was going to happen, whether late or early in the year but I was so elated that I wanted to send my friend a text message. That was of course until I decided against it to save myself some buckaroos. Instead, I thanked God, wondered a little why he gave me a sneak peek, and then went about my day.

A month later, my friends had cooked up an idea to visit the beach and because I was not replying to their thread of messages, he asked me if we were joining our friends to the beach. “Hmmm, that’s fishy,” I thought. He’s not one to be excited about going to the beach unlike myself, who absolutely loves it. He just usually goes because of me, but, whatever. I wasn’t going to play “Are we there yet?” with God and him. I decided that I wasn’t going to torture myself with a guessing game and allow myself to enjoy the moment, because if I did, I might just be setting myself up for letdowns that was completely avoidable. (Ladies, spare yourselves please.)

Too close for comfort

Two weeks before our scheduled beach trip, I was killing time in a mall to avoid traffic when I had the brilliant idea of checking my ring size out of curiosity. I have never checked my ring size before because I always felt like “I had no right to” because I knew it wasn’t time. That day there was no over-thinking, just marching into a store to finally find out what my tiny ring size was. I sent my best friend a text saying I had finally found out what my ring size was to which she sarcastically answered, “So feeling mo ikakasal ka na?” (“So you think you’re getting married?”) To play it cool and coy, I replied, “No. I just wanted to know.” I didn’t want her to drop him any hints if he didn’t want to yet! (And I also didn’t tell her my ring size!)

Beach bums

I unwittingly went to the beach with my big happy barkada on March 31, 2010. I thought it was just another one of our trips to see the sea, relax, and pig out. Through the years we’ve visited Laiya, Batangas quite often just to do those three things. This time around however, we went on a Wednesday, right before the Holy Week break, and almost everyone had to file a leave to go. We usually go on a holiday, but again, whatever, I was going to the beach and I was more than happy to see the sun, sand, and surf. As I got in the car, I noticed there was an overflow of cameras plus they made me bring my video cam too, and I asked a friend “What’s with all the equipment?” He paused before answering, “I dunno, they just brought a lot of cameras.” (Or something as plain as that.) I thought, Alright. I want McDonald’s breakfast na.

My BFF since birth (OK, fine, since I was 7 years old) Eliza texted “everyone” to bring “nice clothes” because we were taking a group picture during the sun set. Since I didn’t want to be mocked by my very laid back friends, I just brought a nice top and denim shorts. While lazing around our cabana in the morning, I told them this after which all the girls’ mouths semi-dropped then snapped back into their guise with “Ohhh. Okay.” Clearly, they were very much into this group picture thing.

We went about our lazy beach trip and while swimming mid-afternoon, Eliza came up with a brilliant game! Who can stay in the water the longest. What am I, five?! Sure, everybody else seemed to want to play this strange game. (I start to realize what strange creatures I’ve surrounded myself with.) Because my skin was already itchy from the salt water, I instantly declared I was losing this game. Soon after Bojo said he was going to go ahead and wash up and when he was looking for our shared bag of toiletries on the shore and couldn’t find it, I got out of the water to help him when all the strange creatures frantically shouted: “BUT WAIT WHAT ABOUT OUR GAME!?!?!?!?!?“ A group of odd balls, I tell you. I was so shocked with all those bobbing heads in the sea water staring at me with a it’s-a-life-or-death situation look while dripping in my swimsuit and answered, “I’ll come back….” I swear, I wonder how these people got tax identification numbers.

When it was finally my turn to wash up, Eliza insisted that we go together. (Yes, in separate cubicles.) I was in a hurry because I didn’t want to be the cause of delay for the picture (which after we get over means we’re on our way to crispy pata in Laiya Grill, the real purpose of our trip) so I put on my clothes and didn’t bother to comb my semi-towel-dried hair.

Eliza: Mag suklay ka nga! (Please brush your hair!)

Me: Bakit ba? (Why?)

Eliza: Tuyuin mo yung buhok mo! Mukha kang basang sisiw. (Dry your hair! You look like a wet duckling!)

Me: No one will care!

Eliza shoves her towel up my face.

Since we were waiting, I combed my very wet hair (no I still didn’t dry it) to get her off my back.

The proposal

So after all that, here’s how Bojo proposed.

He invited me to take pictures against the sun set after I took a shower and our friend who owns a cool DSLR was already ready. I obliged and wanted him to hurry up. The rest of the gang are sure to get mad at us for causing crispy pata delay. We took pictures against the mountains. We took pictures against the sea. “Over there!” Bojo said, pointing to the farther part of the shoreline which was closer to our barakada‘s cabana. I answered, “Pareho lang naman yun! May tubig doon, may tubig dito. May sand doon! May sand dito! OK na!” (trans: It’s the same! There’s water here, there’s water there! There’s sand here, there’s sand there! This is OK!) I was shy and in a rush because I could feel our friends’ mockery of our kalandian (flirtatiousness) with photos.

Bojo pulled me anyway to that side and said, “I think I saw a bottle in the sand!”

Me: Are you hiding things in the sand for me to find?

Bojo: Look! Look!

I pull out an empty wine bottle with a rolled up letter inside. I sit down and start to read. By now I’m thinking, What date is it? Is it our anniversary? It’s only March. Is there an anniversary I don’t know about? I’m such a bad girlfriend! I have nothing prepared in return! Bad Ronna! Bad Ronna! He makes me stand up and we go back and forth about sitting and standing (I say, “No, no, no, no, no!”) until he finally gives up and lets me sit on the sand. I’m sure by now, Bojo was wondering ‘Why am I proposing to this hard-headed little girl again?’ I’m trying to hide from our friends by crouching for fear of their mockery (yes, I’ve used that word many times for them because believe me, we are great at this) of our cheesiness. I’m holding up the group photo and consequently, the crispy pata! We’ll never hear the end of this.

While reading, Bojo gets on his knees and sits on his feet then drops something into the wine bottle. *Clink* His eyes widen and he gasps. I gasp. Is that a….? I try to finish reading the letter and I see our other friend, Lourenz, in my periphery taking a video of everything. I’m hysterical. I try to gain composure, have poise, look like a lady. Instead I’m laughing and crying and rolling around the sand while I try to finish reading the letter and saying “No, no, no, no, no!” because I need a pause button to calm myself down. I put my face in my hands and cry. Bojo cries sheds a tear, then gets worried and asks, “Why are you crying?” I look up and laugh then ask,”Why are YOU crying?” From behind the camera, Lourenz whispers impatiently “Ask her already, man!” Bojo gets my right hand and asks with a nervous smile, “Will you marry me?” And all this hard-headed little girl can do is nod, then I hear the rest of the gang who’ve silently crept up behind me cheer.

The moment was ours and everything was still.

Bojo gently puts the ring on my right hand ring finger and I shout, “Other hand!!!!” Everyone laughs and he just shrugs and says, “Oops!” Now that’s more like us.

After Bojo and I catch our breath from laughing, I cry out “I’m in shoooooorts!!!” And Eliza angrily answers, “I TOLD you to bring a dress!” Thank goodness I got a manicure a few days before!

It was seemingly a close call for Bojo who, I found out after the proposal, bought my ring just two days before I decided to find out my ring size. I couldn’t help but cry when I realized he was proposing because just the day before the beach trip, I was praying long and hard about us in submission to God. I prayed, “If this isn’t what you want, I’ll let it go because I’d rather have what You want for me.” March 31, 2010 was one of the clearest and instant answered prayers I’ve experienced. It was a clear confirmation, of binding my life to this wonderfully silly man who loves God with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength. And I can’t wait till our lifetime of love and silly-ness begins in 29 days.

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~ by littlegirl on June 9, 2011.