Awww these are so cute
Okay maybe we’re cute too.
First off, we have a different school system out here, primary school ranging 4yo-11/12 year old, then depending on level of education you get 4, 5, or 6 years of middle/high school, then you go to any form of higher education depending on the previous level (for both of us, after taking the 6-yr thing, that’s university, at age 18).
Anyhow, this 6-year school was for me 6 years indeed but my bf did the first three years in a different school and then switched because that school was only large enough to house the 4-year path and then the first 3 years of the 5- and 6- year courses. Think of it maybe as a bachelor-master system, then that school only offered bachelor’s degrees.
Anyway, so I took the technical study courses and also biology, because that means getting both a good chance for technical higher education and also in the healthcare field, and I took those with Greek and Latin because you know I am weird and want a bit of everything and cannot make choices. Anyway, he also took the technical+healthcare thing. It was not that uncommon a choice, we had one class full (24 people) with people like us. We had shared classes in chemistry, biology, physics and math but otherwise I had somehow gotten stuffed in a mixed-class with also the language groups for Dutch, English, sports etc. Probably the Latin thing.
In our fourth year we barely met/spoke, just that we knew eachother in passing, nothing spectacular there I guess. In the fifth, there were only two girls left in this technical classes and we both had some male friends, this clicked into a group of about 8 nerds I think somewhere after Christmas and we spent lunch breaks together and they would often spend their open hours (in which I had usually Greek lessons) together as well as skip physics class because that teacher just sucked so hard and could not explain anything (I learned from the book and got a C and was happy, one co-student who got straight-A’s started to teach some kids physics and helped them pass so yeah it was bad).
So in sixth year I guess this continued and our lunch break group got closer and we went to birthday parties and all, also we had a trip to London in March arraged by school. I think something was brewing then but you know, young and stupid and oblivious.
We had our last final exam on June 2nd, and our after-exam party (school organized it, but with everybody being 17-18 and our whole school went, was a good party was on the 3rd. His birthday was the 4th so we sang at midnight of course, though he birthday-party was on the 6th (a friday evening).
So uhm, our legal alcohol drinking was set for low-levels of alcohol at age 16 then (drinks above 15% at age 18, now it’s both 18). He was pretty drunk and less shy so we kind of hung out and he told me he really liked me and had shared a quick kiss then, at about 01:00 when the party was technically over and parents were already waiting to take us home - we can’t start driving lessons before our 18th birthday - so we both ran home after that
.
So next morning I was afraid he maybe forgot because he had been pretty numb (he’s a sleepy drunk so while that’s cute I can’t ever tell how much he remembers) and I had decided to call him to congratulate him on his birthday in my most ever hoarse voice (lack of voice at all). I had told myself that if I wanted to be the girlfriend I should act like one and the least I could do was call him on his birthday right? Turned out I was barely able to speak so that was a bit of a problem.
I got his mother on the phone first, lol. Felt super awkward because I actually couldn’t really say something but she’s super sweet so that’s okay. I think we barely spoke back then since we had nothing to say/didn’t know where to start so we shared the silence
Anyway I got sort of confirmation on his party on the 6th and we went to a movie the week after, and he and our friends came over for my own graduation party as well later and we hadn’t told them yet so it was a bit of our secret. My cousin had then afterwards asked me ‘so is he your boyfriend or something’ and I had no proper answer bc it was all just starting but when I told him that he litterally straight out asked me if I wanted to be his girlfriend officially so that worked out well ^^. But I guess to everybody else we were completely obvious lol
Aaaaaand then we spent the whole summer apart. He went on a three-week holiday with his parents, I went on a three-week holiday with mine, and we both started studying on universities far away from our hometown. By train it would take me 3 hours to get home or to him.
We were a weekend/holiday-relationship for the next 4 years. After that I transferred for my master’s degree (he’d transferred previously) and suddenly we lived as neighbours so basically together for about 4-5 days a week; there would be something with our housemates or study friends sometimes or a weekend not spent back with either of our parents. Or exam weeks. Or the yearly field trips for 3-6 weeks for him, usually in may or june. He’s in earth sciences so he got to study stuff all over the world.
In his last year he moved for an internship and I went to my parents’ also for internships. Back to the weekend thing lol. But we’ve always managed so we could also survive those last 5 months.
We both graduated around the summer of 2016 and also both had found a job around november/december. We moved to our current place around christmas-new year 2016-2017. We’d been together since his birthday in 2009 approximately so it was about time we actually moved in together! (:
Last year for my birthday, almost a year ago now, we were on holiday camping at the beach and had went out for dinner at the beach for my birthday. There had been a wedding we thought, because there was this super ugly wooden porch on the beach which we totally resented and commented on like ‘we’re not ever getting THAT for our wedding’. Bc yeah we’d already established this mutual idea of getting married at some point in our lives, same as that sometime in the future we eant kids. Anyway after dinner, sun had just set but he said he wanted to walk to the shoreline still so we did, and then he asked if he wanted to get married and oblivious me (who thought maybe he was not ready yet honestly) just said ‘yeah whenever you get to asking me’ so that was a bit awkward for both and only after rephrasing and asking ‘but for real would you marry me’ that actually registered as him asking me. He even asked me if he needed to get to his knees for me to get it but the sand was cold and wet so I said don’t. So yay we got engaged. Haha.
My sister and her boyfriend visited us the next day (tuesday) for my birthday on our campsite and we kept it a secret from them the whole day, super giggly about it, because we wanted to tell our parents first. We got a ring together the day after, and our holiday wasn’t even that long because it was going to rain so we broke camp and went home thursday. My littlest sister was home then, so when we told her and my parents like “uhm yeah we got some news we’re gonna get married” she was suddenly crying out super loud like I HAVE WAITED FOR THIS FOREVER because well, we’d been together 8,5 years and she was 18 so we had been together since just after her 10th birthday - I guess that was justified (for the record I have two younger sisters and a younger brother and she’s the youngest child).
I atill had a week off and we went to my grandmother who lives pretty far away, got the ring resized by my uncle (he’s a goldsmith, lucky me so it was free) and visited her to tell. I could really tell she was super happy about it, like things settling into place for her maybe.
Anyway, she had been having a heart condition and had a heart attack not much later, maybe a week, at night, she had called the nurses but they got there too late. I’m glad she knew before passing but would have loved her to be able to join us for the day. So it was a weird period of time but after the funeral and everybody (I’ve fot a large family on my mother’s side!) was at my grandmother’s home and we had gotten dinner and all so I could tell the rest of the family in one go. My aunt (mother’s younger sister) told me that my grandmother had been pretty excited about it because when my aunt had visited her later on that week she had already told her and then felt bad because I had said I wanted to tell the rest of the family myself lol. So my aunt said she would pretend she did not know which she did until after I’d told then. Super sweet of her. It was also such a cute story to think of how happy my grandma was with the engagement ^^
We’ve been engaged for almost a year now and will get married next year May 17th. We’ve yet to arrange eveything else but the wedding location, but I will have a holiday by the end of this week (again around my birthday) and we’ve planned to go actually do stuff then.
For the record we have no pets in our appartment because we thought that’d be cruel on the animals lol
