Official Student Newspaper of Henry M. Gunn High School

The Oracle

Official Student Newspaper of Henry M. Gunn High School

The Oracle

Official Student Newspaper of Henry M. Gunn High School

The Oracle

Happily Ever After Staff share their marriage proposal stories

Terence Kitada

 The Oracle: How did you propose to your fiancée?

Terence Kitada: I was working in Japan from 2008 to 2011 and that’s where I met my fiancée but then I moved back to California. And so we’d been kind of doing long distance and we’d always see each other twice a year. So on our last visit, which was over winter break, we met down in Los Angeles. We were having a lot of fun, went to Disneyland and stuff. And then we went to the Getty Center, which is a museum on the top of a hill around the Santa Monica area. I proposed to her on the rooftop patio of the Getty Center at sunset. It was very romantic.

 

TO: What was your inspiration for doing it the way that you did?

TK: I think I wanted to have some sort of romantic gesture but at the same time I didn’t want to do it in front of a whole bunch of people, you know at Disneyland or something like that, because it was more of a private moment. I thought that by being a little isolated on the rooftop together would be a little more intimate but also some sort of public display.

 

TO: How sure were you that she would say yes?

TK: That was the nice part because we had discussed it beforehand in terms of logistics of moving to California, and I was 99 percent sure that she would say yes. That took the pressure off. But it was really funny because I got down on one knee and everything and you see it all the time in movies and things like that, but when you actually do it yourself, it’s such a big gesture, holding a ring and staring up at the person. It’s a little bit nerve-wracking and intimidating.

 

TO: Is there anything else you would like to add? 

TK: It’s funny because she’s Japanese but they don’t really do the whole down-on-one knee proposal all the time. I think for her it was a little bit of a surprise because she’s seen it in movies and stuff but to actually have me do it she’s like, “Oh my goodness,” you know, it’s a little bit surprising.

 

Jessica Kalka

The Oracle: How did your spouse propose to you?

Jessica Kalka: He proposed to me while we were planking in our living room. He had the ring in his pocket and pulled it out in the middle of a plank.

      TO: What was your initial reaction?

JK: Surprised at first. And then I was nervous because we exercise and we challenge each other a lot, so I was nervous that I wasn’t allowed to break the plank to accept the proposal. Neither of us ended up breaking the plank during the exchange of the ring.

 

TO: Did you see the proposal coming?

JK: No, I did not. We had previously talked about not wanting to get married—not because we were against it, but just because we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together but didn’t necessarily see marriage as the only way to do that.

 

TO: How did you two meet? 

JK: We met ice skating in Pennsylvania. We had mutual friends, and our mutual friends invited both of us separately.

 

TO: Did you see any clues to the proposal coming, or was it out of the blue? 

JK: I think for the last year or so, it became more of a common topic that it might eventually happen, whereas years before, we never talked about it. It just wasn’t something that was in our plans. I guess because both of us kind of changed opinions at about the same time, it seemed like it could eventually happen, but not necessarily. But it did.

 

Mark Weisman

 

The Oracle: How did you propose to your spouse?

Mark Weisman: I met my wife when she was a student trainer when I was playing football at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). I took her back to UCLA after we graduated and took her to all the spots we’d hung out on campus. Then we went to the practice field, where we met. I got down on one knee, for everybody to see, and cried my way through something about stars and moons. And she said yes.

TO: What preparations had to be made?

MW: I had to get her back down [to Los Angeles] and I just said, “Let’s go visit UCLA.” We went to all the different spots, and then I had all of our family and friends at the restaurant of our first date. After she said yes—thank goodness she said yes—we walked down to Westwood and walked into the restaurant. Everybody was there so we celebrated.

 

TO: What was the inspiration behind the proposal?

MW: Well, the connection—tapping into something that brought us together, UCLA football. She was happy with the results and we still had a lot of witnesses. It was actually a weekday so dozens of people were walking around, going to class or whatever. It was in front of everybody.

 

TO: How sure were you on a scale from 1 to 10 (10 being absolutely sure) that your spouse would accept?

MW: Oh, that’s a 10. I’m pretty conservative when it comes to stuff like that anyways so I’m not going to do it unless I know I’m going to have a pretty positive answer.

 

TO: How nervous were you?

MW: Pretty nervous, that’s for sure. I’m a sensitive guy, so when I say, ‘I cried my way through it,’ I literally, you know, waterworks through the whole thing. I probably didn’t even make any sense, but I was on a knee and I had a ring in my fingers, so I’m pretty sure she understood it. She was crying too, just not as much as me.

 

 

 

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