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It was a hot evening in August of '02. In the sixth grade classroom up the stairs and to the left, a once red-cheeked boy nervously knelt in front of an excited, and still a bit frizzy-haired girl.
With a trembling hand, he held out the most beautiful ring she had ever seen.
He tells the story best...
We walked up the stairs of the school building that was so familiar and it seemed as if nothing had changed in all of those years. I remember being as nervous as I was the first day that I had ever walked up those stairs. This was the first real school that I had ever been to. Walking into that room for the first time and meeting all of those friends who had been together for so long. Many of them close friends since the age of six.
I only remember three times that I walked into that room, that the door felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. The first time was that first day of school when I was the most vulnerable that I had ever been in my long twelve-year span on the earth.
The second, almost as vivid, was Valentine's day in ’94, when I walked in the room carrying a balloon and Valentine's heart that I had gotten for another girl in our class. She rejected even receiving my gift, and the rest of that day all I could think about was getting back home to safety.
The third was this very moment that I am speaking of now. Vulnerable? Yes. Rejection? Possible.
With all of these thoughts racing through my head, I had to go through with the plan, or why else would we even be in this building. She had a strong feeling that something was up from the moment we drove onto the school property. I could hear it in her breath, and would not feel the same type of anticipation from her again until our wedding day. It was so distinct, and it made me more nervous.
The room had been changed around a little and the desks had been upgraded since our last time there. I walked to the back row where I had spent 180 days of my life staring into those golden locks. It was there that I turned around, dropped to my knee, and pulled a diamond ring from the pinky of my left hand. I paused, looked up into her beautiful blue eyes and said the words that I had rehearsed over and over in my mind.
"Amanda, we walked out of this room almost 10 years ago with plans, hopes, and dreams, but not knowing exactly where life would take us. Today we will walk out of here much the same way, but this time, I want to walk out of here together. Will you marry me?"
I was so glad that she said yes.
{To be continued...}
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