Timing is Everything

by Gina Gallo

When I was 22, my honey asked me to marry him. It was sweet and well-meaning, and I said, "No". Truthfully, I said, "What? No, why would you ask that right now? No!" (Yes, my nickname is Ms. Tactful.) I said no because I knew that I wanted to go back to college and get my degree. My financial aid would be drastically lower if I was married. He understood and we went on.

When I was 29 in 2008, I graduated from college with a 3.8 Magna cum Laude degree in education from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. On June 1st, his 30th birthday and our 11th anniversary, we went to lunch at South Seas Diner. This was the restaurant where he first said that he loved me. We try to get there every year to celebrate our anniversary. We were talking about the beautiful day when the waitress brought our drinks. Then, he just brought out the ring and proposed. Whereupon, I promptly burst into the most embarrassing crying fit ever. I tried to call my Mom, but I couldn't speak through the tears and then, when I gave the phone to Josh, he was laughing too hard to speak, so she was all panicked thinking that we had gotten into a car accident. Josh finally told her and she told me that she already known, because he asked my parents permission first. It was a simple proposal and one of my fondest memories. We will be getting married sometime in 2010. We just have to save enough money for it.