His Story
On dating:
It was a dark and stormy night… No, that’s not good. It was the best of times, it was the… Nope, that’s even worse. Our relationship started out as anything but cliché, so I need a better opening than that. Rachel was a freshman living in Old Dorm of Will Rice College at Rice University. I was a senior at the same college, same university, but off campus. She played women’s intramural powderpuff football for Will Rice, and I used to be the coach. She was a psychology major (“academ,” Rice slang for “academic”), and I was a mechanical engineering major (“SE,” short for Science & Engineering). Nothing was quite lining up to predict future romantic bliss. I had a crazy 9-to-2 job (9am to 2am) working in investment banking upon graduation, and Rachel was equally as busy with classes and extracurriculars that would make most people tired just thinking about it all. Rachel and I kept in touch during this time, albeit infrequently (approximately biannually), with random texts like “Pickle” and “I like to move it, move it!” After her graduation, she worked and traveled the world, and I rarely ventured outside the Loop (the 38-mile highway enclosing the urban core of Houston, or approximately 15% of the city proper). Things still weren’t exactly lining up. And then they did. Rachel returned to Houston in fall 2012 from her [ ]-month, [ ]-country odyssey studying [ ][1] and continued with the same job she had before her travels, but with a promotion or two. She made the first moves, frequently asking me to join her for dinner to discuss things that I presumably had knowledge of, like buying a house and Rice athletics. (I later found out she had feigned interest, or at least exaggerated hers, just to spend time with me.) At the Rice Centennial in November 2012, the two of us ditched our group of approximately 20 Rice friends, who were bickering about whether to eat at BW3s or Amazon Grille (two favorite local restaurants), and instead we walked the couple miles from campus to dinner and back, alone. At that moment, I knew what I needed to do. But I needed the confidence to do it. Enter a couple we’ll fictionally call “Brian Benjamin and Julia Mattson” on Beer Bike weekend in March 2013. (Beer Bike is Rice’s largest annual alumni event, a homecoming of sorts, and involves an on-campus bike race among the colleges, Martel Dormitory, and the graduate students). Keep in mind I had never met Julia. She professed matchmaking expertise and told me that I had to ask Rachel out that weekend and confirmed that Rachel would immediately and enthusiastically say “Yes!” I’m a guy, so I had my doubts. Brian, who was Rachel’s Co-Secretary (kind of a big deal) at Will Rice their junior year, told me it was a sure thing. I was convinced. So in as romantic of a setting as I could conjure, on Sunday night, at a forced get-together to play some games I don’t remember because I was so nervous about what was to come, at our friends' apartment (let's call them "John and Cameron Elias"), in the parking lot, in the cold, after everyone else had left, I ran after Rachel and asked to get the sweatshirt back that she had borrowed from me earlier that day. (Seriously, couldn’t I come up with something better to say?) We stood outside, looking at each other, Rachel freezing (because I took back the sweatshirt, but then later gave it back because, well, she was freezing), until I got the confidence to finally ask her out. John and his dog “Pikachu” heard this too, as they came outside for a walk and tried to keep their distance but still were close enough for me to notice. So not exactly fairytale, and not exactly cliché, but it was the best decision I had ever made in my life! On “the question”: What better place to propose than Hawaii? Enough said.[2] |
Her Story
The first time I "met" Clint was on my Rice orientation video the summer before I was to start college. Nearly seven years later, we would go on our first date; ten years later, and we will be married.
But first, dating. Clint and I remained good friends despite our busy lives after graduation - Clint with climbing the corporate ladder at Deutsche Bank, and I with traveling internationally. I put forth my best effort to convey my interest, constantly inviting Clint to hang out with my girlfriends and asking him for advice on things I already knew how to do, but the message was not so easily received. Like all good Will Ricers (Will Rice was our residential college at Rice, similar to Gryffindor in Harry Potter), we finally got together at Beer Bike (the most popular campus event at Rice, consisting of a relay bike race between all residential colleges, which of course Will Rice typically dominates). Our group of mutual friends had half-jokingly, half-seriously delegated the responsibility for planning the weekend's events to me, just like when we were undergrads. Clint was by my side the entire time, for which I will be forever grateful. Finally, at 11pm on Sunday night, it happened. We were leaving our friends' apartment after an evening of board games, and Clint said that he would walk me to my car. I think I had also borrowed his sweatshirt and "needed to return it," though I have yet to do so to this very day. Standing outside my car, I could tell that Clint was very nervous. I don't even remember exactly what he said because I was so elated to say yes. The excitement was so overwhelming that I could barely remember how to drive home and took a few wrong turns before I eventually made it. The proposal. Leading up to the proposal, Clint was very careful in how he described our relationship. On several occasions, he asked me, "We're not ready to be married yet, right?" (As I would later learn, that is an entirely separate question from whether we were ready to be engaged...) We had planned a trip to Hawaii in April 2014 with a group of our college friends. Due to Clint's previously mentioned comments, I thought it was only going to be a trip with our college friends. The night before the proposal, we were sitting in our friends' condo making our schedule for the next day. We planned to drive Maui's "Road to Hana," a popular full-day scenic drive along the Maui coastline. I wanted to leave early to beat the crowds, so I was a bit perplexed when Clint was a proponent for leaving closer to lunchtime, a reversal of our normal roles. Clint was also intent on having breakfast on the beach and watching the sunrise (even though we were on the wrong side of the island for this), which I thought was better saved for a less-busy day. In hindsight, I should have started to piece together the clues, particularly when grocery shopping earlier in the day Clint asked, "What should we buy to celebrate?" but I was too distracted by being in Hawaii. ("Celebrate being in Hawaii" was how I completed his question in my head, which made perfect sense to me.) The next morning, we woke up later than planned for our breakfast. The sun had already risen, so we decided to eat on our balcony instead. I spent a few minutes inside brewing my coffee while Clint set our table. When I came outside, he had set up our places on opposite sides of the table. I grabbed my chair and what I thought was a muffin wrapped in tinfoil and said, "I want to sit next to you," dragging both to the other side of the table. Fortunately, because I am not a morning person, I did not spot my muffin innocently sitting on an extra chair within my peripheral vision. I did think that my foil-wrapped "muffin" looked a bit flatter and more rectangular than is typical, but I assumed it had merely gotten a bit squished. Clint and I spent a few moments sitting next to each other enjoying the morning before Clint began to speak. I could tell he was very nervous, which is when I finally realized that something unusual was occurring. He knelt on one knee and unwrapped my "muffin," revealing the ring box, and asked me to marry him. I, of course, said yes! |
[1] For the record, I asked Rachel to fill in the brackets, but she thought it would be funnier if they remained blank.
[2] After 9 Rice friends decided to go on a trip of a lifetime together, the big question was where. A list was compiled, and the first location eliminated was Inez, Texas... and the last one standing was Maui. I immediately knew I had the romantic place covered for a proposal... now I just needed a ring and a plan.
Well, I actually had the ring. I did my research on the 4 C's of diamonds and found a reputable place. The only remaining question was Rachel's ring size. I had tried for months to figure that out: by subtly asking her, by volunteering to take her to a jeweler to resize her wrongly sized Rice ring, and by just holding hands with her to eyeball the difference. Nevertheless, I made a judgment call at the jeweler and hoped it would work out. (Spoiler alert: I nailed it!)
Next came the longest 9-hour trip I had ever experienced. I put the ring in my carry-on bag and obsessed about staying with it the entire time. Once when Rachel volunteered to carry my bag instead, I think I barked at her that I didn't need any help. (I'm sorry, Rachel; now you understand.) I sort of felt like Frodo bearing the burden of The One Ring.
The rest of the plan involved proposing during a romantic breakfast at sunrise on the beach. Problem was, we had no breakfast, no picnic basket, and a hotel room on the wrong (west) side of the island. So I made do with a couple of muffins from Costco and the hotel balcony. Rachel kept suggesting that we leave for the famed Road to Hana super early the second day of our vacation, and so I agreed... let's leave around 10am. I think we settled on 8am, which still allowed time for the proposal as long as I could convince Rachel to wake up at 6am, which should have been easy given the 5-hour time difference between Maui and Houston, but it wasn't. I somehow woke Rachel up and set up for the proposal on the balcony outside. I found an excuse to send Rachel back inside, during which time I removed the muffin from the foil wrapper and replaced it with the ring box, which had awkwardly been in my pocket. Rachel was so tired when she came back she didn't notice the poorly wrapped "muffin" right away, and then... I got down on one knee, helped her unwrap the foil, opened the box, and asked Rachel to marry me while slipping on the ring, which fit perfectly! (I nailed the size, for the record.)
She said yes! So we called our parents to tell them the news. But rather than post it on Facebook right away, we decided to see how long it would take the rest of our traveling mates to notice the new bling on Rachel's left ring finger. We decided that if it took too long, Rachel would constantly and somewhat obnoxiously point at things with her left hand, run her left hand through her hair, grab at things across the table with her left hand, etc., until everyone noticed.
So we drove over to the condo where our friends were staying, walked inside, and talked for a bit. No one noticed anything, but to be fair, it was fairly quick and still early. We split up into 2 cars: our car had the other 2 girls, and the other car had the other 5 guys.
Katie O'Sullivan and Avery Cate noticed within 5 minutes. (It helped that Rachel continued reaching into the backseat, where they were sitting, to pick out another tarot chip from the bag.) However, none of the boys noticed until... the next morning... after Rachel and I posted our engagement to Facebook!
[2] After 9 Rice friends decided to go on a trip of a lifetime together, the big question was where. A list was compiled, and the first location eliminated was Inez, Texas... and the last one standing was Maui. I immediately knew I had the romantic place covered for a proposal... now I just needed a ring and a plan.
Well, I actually had the ring. I did my research on the 4 C's of diamonds and found a reputable place. The only remaining question was Rachel's ring size. I had tried for months to figure that out: by subtly asking her, by volunteering to take her to a jeweler to resize her wrongly sized Rice ring, and by just holding hands with her to eyeball the difference. Nevertheless, I made a judgment call at the jeweler and hoped it would work out. (Spoiler alert: I nailed it!)
Next came the longest 9-hour trip I had ever experienced. I put the ring in my carry-on bag and obsessed about staying with it the entire time. Once when Rachel volunteered to carry my bag instead, I think I barked at her that I didn't need any help. (I'm sorry, Rachel; now you understand.) I sort of felt like Frodo bearing the burden of The One Ring.
The rest of the plan involved proposing during a romantic breakfast at sunrise on the beach. Problem was, we had no breakfast, no picnic basket, and a hotel room on the wrong (west) side of the island. So I made do with a couple of muffins from Costco and the hotel balcony. Rachel kept suggesting that we leave for the famed Road to Hana super early the second day of our vacation, and so I agreed... let's leave around 10am. I think we settled on 8am, which still allowed time for the proposal as long as I could convince Rachel to wake up at 6am, which should have been easy given the 5-hour time difference between Maui and Houston, but it wasn't. I somehow woke Rachel up and set up for the proposal on the balcony outside. I found an excuse to send Rachel back inside, during which time I removed the muffin from the foil wrapper and replaced it with the ring box, which had awkwardly been in my pocket. Rachel was so tired when she came back she didn't notice the poorly wrapped "muffin" right away, and then... I got down on one knee, helped her unwrap the foil, opened the box, and asked Rachel to marry me while slipping on the ring, which fit perfectly! (I nailed the size, for the record.)
She said yes! So we called our parents to tell them the news. But rather than post it on Facebook right away, we decided to see how long it would take the rest of our traveling mates to notice the new bling on Rachel's left ring finger. We decided that if it took too long, Rachel would constantly and somewhat obnoxiously point at things with her left hand, run her left hand through her hair, grab at things across the table with her left hand, etc., until everyone noticed.
So we drove over to the condo where our friends were staying, walked inside, and talked for a bit. No one noticed anything, but to be fair, it was fairly quick and still early. We split up into 2 cars: our car had the other 2 girls, and the other car had the other 5 guys.
Katie O'Sullivan and Avery Cate noticed within 5 minutes. (It helped that Rachel continued reaching into the backseat, where they were sitting, to pick out another tarot chip from the bag.) However, none of the boys noticed until... the next morning... after Rachel and I posted our engagement to Facebook!