In late 2007, I met someone. She was a few years younger than me (or so I thought), but I was enraptured by her. She was a swing dancer, like me, and we met at a typical Saturday swing night at Louis & Company. But what started out as a typical night became the beginning of a saga that still has me wondering on a daily basis just what I did to deserve such a wonderful person in my life.
I am speaking, of course, about my fianceé, Becca. Though we didn’t start dating for almost a year after we met, her smile and zeal had me smitten from day one. When we started dating, it didn’t take long for me to admit that I was in love with her, and not much more time to tell her that I was pretty sure we were going to get married. In fact, as a few of my friends can attest, I started planning my proposal within only a few months, even though it wasn’t going to be for another full year.
For the first part of our relationship, Becca lived in Manhattan, attending K-State. She was pre-vet, though, so I don’t hold that against her. But we saw each other as often as we could, and in the spring of 2009, I got her father’s blessing to propose. I planned to do it at her birthday circle. I don’t want to get into the details of swing circles, but the gist is that you go to the center of the dance floor and people take turns dancing with you for an entire song.
It was the perfect time for me to propose. I arranged to have Becca’s sister and best friend present, and my friends were there as well. In fact, Nick agreed to hold onto the ring while I danced, and at the end of the song (after the dip, of course), he quickly put it in my hand behind my back and without Becca even noticing. I dropped to one knee, and at first she didn’t even realize what was happening. We had talked about getting engaged, but she wasn’t expecting it for another year or two.
I won’t go into detail about the proposal here (that’s a story for another post), but obviously she said yes. Since then, we have had more than two years of happiness together, and I know we will have more in the future. Sure, there are times when I can get a little stubborn, but I’m a man… done explaining.
We get married in a little over a year, and I can’t wait! The past three and a half (ish) years have been a blur of joy and amazing things, and I know that we will have many, many years of happiness ahead of us.
Stay tuned in a year or so for the follow up to this post: “About Bill: husband”!