The Best Laid Plans: A Story of a Proposal Gone Wrong

I had planned and re-planned. I practiced what I was going to say and how I was going to pull out the ring. I had purchased the ring a couple of weeks before, with the idea of asking her to marry me on my birthday. The ring itself wasn't expensive, but I was just about to turn 21, so it was what I could afford. I was about to become legal and engaged all in one fell swoop, or so I thought.

My sister was having a birthday party for me at her house. There was going to be food, music, and drinking. The drinking is where the problems started. My girlfriend's parents were against drinking and they didn't want their 20 year old daughter at a party, where drinking would take place. In all honesty they didn't like me very much to begin with. I had long hair and an earring, so I think they assumed I was a punk. They also didn't like the fact that I wasn't a churchgoer.

In an effort to smooth things over with her parents, I promised I wouldn't drink at the party. I thought everything was fine and went to pick her up the afternoon of the party. That is when things took a bad turn. My girlfriend was about to get into the car when her mother started shouting, from her porch, that she was not allowed to go. Her mother was as angry as I have ever seen a person. I thought because she was 20 years old she could make her own decision, but she acquiesced to her mother's demands.

I was determined to go through with my proposal, so a friend and I hatched a plan to get my girlfriend to the party. We came up with a half-baked scheme to pick her up a friend's house and bring her to the party for a couple of hours, or at least long enough for me to pop the question. I even kept my promise and had yet to have any alcohol.

Everything seemed to be going well. We had picked her up and taken her to my sister's house. Not more than five minutes after we pulled into the driveway, my girlfriend's parents showed up. They pulled us aside and I received a lecture about respecting their wishes and how she was not allowed to see me again. I stood there stone silent. My sister on the other hand tried to stick up for me, she always had the gift of gab. It also didn't help that some less then sober people tried to help me out by shouting things out the window. After what seemed like an hour long sermon, my girlfriend and her parents went home.

I was crushed and soon I broke my alcohol ban. Vodka and I became close chums that night. I woke up the next morning with a headache and a ring still in my pocket.

It didn't all turn out bad though. My girlfriend and I didn't see much of each other for the next few weeks, that is until we moved in together. The first night we lived together I asked her to marry me by candlelight, because the electric company couldn't come and turn on the power until after the weekend. She said yes and we were married a couple of years later. It has now been 15 years of marriage and though it hasn't always been easy, we are still together, and that's what counts. Rebecca I love you, and thank you for your unconditional support.