Our Love Story

Some love stories begin with a grand introduction. Ours began with something much simpler—a text message sent at just the right moment.

It was **April 2015**, on the day of our graduations. We had already known each other since our high school days, when our paths first crossed through the same internship program. Back then, neither of us knew that those small encounters would someday become part of a much bigger story.

On the way to his own graduation venue, Mark decided to make the first move. He sent Tina a simple message congratulating her on graduating. It was nothing dramatic, nothing carefully planned—just a sincere greeting.

But somehow, that one message became the beginning of everything.

From there, the conversations continued. One text became another, and before long, talking to each other became a regular part of our days. We slowly learned more about one another—the little things, the stories, the jokes, and the moments that made ordinary days feel a little more special.

By the **last week of November 2015**, we finally decided to meet for our first real date at the **Festival of Dancing Lights in Makati City**. Surrounded by colorful lights and music, we spent the evening together watching the show before heading to Yellow Cab for dinner.

And while the lights were beautiful, we still laugh about one particular detail from that night: **we did not enjoy the food at all.**

Maybe that is why we remember it so clearly.

It was not a perfect first date in the way movies usually portray one. But it was ours. And looking back, perhaps that made it even more special. We were simply two people spending time together, slowly discovering that we wanted more evenings like that.

Then came **Valentine's Day in February 2016**.

Wanting to make the occasion special, he wrote her a poem and prepared gifts for her. There was only one problem—he never got the chance to give them to her on Valentine's Day itself.

She received them two weeks later.

Romantic timing may not have always been his greatest strength, but the feelings behind the gesture were real. And perhaps that became an early preview of our relationship: not always perfectly planned, sometimes a little delayed, but always sincere.

By **July 2016**, he finally asked if he could formally court her.

What followed was not a rushed love story.

For the next year and a half, we took our time. We went to work together, visited amusement parks, ate at restaurants, watched movies, went on dates, shared long conversations, and simply enjoyed having each other around.

There was no need to hurry.

Without realizing it, we were already building the foundation of the relationship we have today—one ordinary day, one meal, one trip, and one memory at a time.

Then, in **December 2017**, after a year and a half of dating and courtship, the waiting finally ended.

We officially became boyfriend and girlfriend.

It was the beginning of a new chapter, but in many ways, it also felt like a continuation of something that had already become so natural to us. We had already learned how much we enjoyed experiencing life side by side. Now, we simply had a name for what we had become.

As the years passed, our relationship grew through countless celebrations and ordinary moments.

We celebrated birthdays, monthsaries, and anniversaries. We traveled to different places, discovered new food together, watched movies, planned little getaways, and created traditions of our own.

Some memories came from special occasions. Others came from simple days that became special only because we were together.

Through all those years, we grew—not just as a couple, but as individuals who continued choosing one another through every season of life.

Then came **January 2021**.

We got engaged.

Was it the dreamy, perfectly planned proposal seen in romantic movies?

Not exactly.

In fact, he still says he wants to do it properly one more time before the wedding.

But maybe that is another thing we have learned throughout our story: love does not always need the perfect setting to be real. The most important part was never the proposal itself.

It was the promise behind it.

A promise that someday, after all the years of dating, traveling, eating, celebrating, laughing, growing, and building a life together, we would finally stand in front of the people we love and choose each other for good.

And so the years continued.

More trips. More meals. More celebrations. More photographs. More conversations about the future.

Until eventually, five years after our engagement, the future we had talked about for so long finally became a date on the calendar.

**November 2026.**

More than eleven years after that first graduation message, we will finally become husband and wife.

When we look back, our story was never built around one grand romantic moment.

It was built from hundreds of smaller ones.

A congratulatory text.

A festival of dancing lights.

A dinner we did not enjoy.

A Valentine's poem delivered two weeks late.

A question asking permission to court.

A year and a half of waiting.

Countless dates, movies, meals, birthdays, anniversaries, road trips, and ordinary days spent beside each other.

An imperfect proposal.

And, above all, years of choosing to stay.

Our love did not happen all at once.

It grew quietly, patiently, and naturally.

And perhaps that is what makes our story so meaningful to us.

Because after all the places we have visited, all the meals we have shared, and all the years that have passed, we have realized that home was never really a place.

It has always been each other.

And this November, we begin our favorite chapter yet—

**forever.**