By: Mike
Out of the blue some girl messages me on Instagram. She said she liked my art, which was nice but I still suspected it was one of several bots that tend to target guys online. I replied "Thanks" "What's 5 + 6?". After a long pause she replied "11?" which was kind of a shock, she was real! And we hit it off from there.
I found she had a sarcastic yet smart personality. She did art like me which was cool and gave us lots to talk about. She also didn't mind my sometimes awkward and random ADHD brain thoughts that took our conversations into some truly random topics. I wanted to know even more about her the longer we talked.
When we started talking about meeting up in person our options were a bit limited. With a lot of places still closed during the pandemic I told her about my favorite place to get Asian ingredients for cooking, Mitsuwa marketplace. To my surprise she knew the exact place I was talking about! That sealed the deal for me and I was looking forward to showing off my favorite food stalls and the bookstore. From an ill advised grocery store date to showing her the hilarious wonders of VR, I'm proud to say I never fully scared her off, and she's still with me to this day.
By: Jessie
It all started with me doing something completely out of character. I messaged a random guy on the internet. Yes, I know how that sounds but hear me out.
I had been scrolling the "Suggested for you" pages of Instagram on a whim. When I seemed to be drawn to one account over and over. There I found art content, a cute tortoiseshell cat named Pepper, and some selfies of a guy with dyed hair. His posts were genuine and his sense of humor was very much like mine. Despite knowing absolutely nothing concrete about this person I couldn't help but like him. I knew this could amount to nothing and be a let down. But something in me said you need to try and be brave.
So I messaged a guy to tell him his art looked awesome and he seemed like a cool human. To my surprise he messaged back. We talked about everything and nothing. And I never wanted our conversations to end. Before I knew it a month had flown by, we talked almost every day. Until we finally had the chance to meet in person. Of all places we decided to go to an Asian market. But hey we were doing our best despite a pandemic.
How we met
By Jessie:
Mike had been asking me when we could set up a double date with Nikkie and Colton for a while. We finally decided on a photography date where we could go to a greenhouse and take pictures of plants. I was like "Awesome, I love plants". The greenhouse was in a suburb in Chicago, bit of a hike but that didn't bother me. When we got to the greenhouse the reception lady was weirdly picky with Mike and the camera he'd brought.
I was having a great time pointing out flowers, and chatting with the two resident parrots. Having a great time. I was fawning over the giant Monstera plant that actually had some Monstera fruit which I had never seen in person before. I tried to show Mike but the three of them were like let's get a pic of Mike and you in front of the Monstera. Nikkie poses us, takes a pic or two but then Mike steps away and when I turn he's down on his knee asking me if I would be his wife. I think my heart stopped for a second. And before I could think better of it the first words out of my mouth were "Stop. You're joking.. you're joking." Mike goes "No, I'm serious" And I said "Yes!"
I couldn't believe I had been caught by surprise like that. Still can't believe it! I never picked up on their scheme at all. We got in the car and immediately called our families to tell them the news. I may never live this story down but I also couldn't be happier.
By Mike
Planning a surprise proposal for somebody who doesn’t like surprises poses a set of unique challenges. I knew she wouldn't want to be around a lot of people and she would want to be somewhere comfortable, so I chose the botanical gardens.
Thing is, I was nervous as heck, and had no idea how I would get it on film, so I needed some backup. In comes my best friend from high school Nikkie. I message her and say "Could I hire you as a photographer?" Thus begins the plan. Me and Nikkie decided to set it up as a double date. We would head into the gardens with her and Colton, me and Jess, look around a bit and then stop and surround the girl of the hour. We found a suitable spot and I ignored my triple speed heartbeat, got down on one knee and opened my ring (upside down, of course).
She said yes! Well, almost. The first words she said was "No, stop it, you're joking", but then it started to click that I was - in fact, not joking. (Can you imagine if I was? She would've murdered me!). I definitely got the surprise I wanted out of her, and I couldn't have pulled it off without my Photographer and Videographer's help.
The Proposal
“To the world you are one person, but to one person you are the world”.
Anonymous