Shivani and I love going on outdoor adventures. We’re one with nature, you could say. Okay, well maybe I’m more so the outdoor lover and Shivani joins me because she just wants to hang out with me.

We’ve had a good amount of dangly feet picture adventures together. One of the first times we hung out, I asked if she would want to go on a hike with me.

She said yes. I told her it would be an intense one, with a little bit of rock climbing, maybe a lot of rock climbing. The trail was called Breakneck Ridge. She said no problem at all.

We end up going on this hike and had a blast. It was Shivani’s first real hike and she handled the boulders, woods, and snow so well. Obviously the view at the top was well worth the effort.

Fast forward to some time later when again, “hey I found this cool hike, but it’s 5 miles..there’s a waterfall at the end..you want to go?” Again, without hesitation, she said yes. There were a lot of smaller hikes n walks leading up to this but this one was special because I was going to ask her to be my girlfriend. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t quite bring the amount of water I should have in my backpack and being such a gentleman, I told Shivani not to bring a backpack because I’d just carry both of our stuff with me.

That was probably one of the hottest days of summer, but going through all of the different terrains and seeing the waterfall at the end was a lot of fun. Surprisingly, even though I just put her through this sweaty, tiring hike, she still said yes when I asked her to be my girlfriend.

Last came the proposal. I figured Shivani wouldn’t expect to get asked to marry me on a hike. After all, it was summertime, she wouldn’t have on a nice dress, nor me a suit, but more importantly, her nails wouldn’t be done to “he put a ring on it” standards.

That seemed like a perfect opportunity for a surprise and so that’s exactly what I did. “Hey, Shivani...want to go back to Breakneck Ridge?” This time instead of an immediate yes, I got a little push back; It was summer, supposed to be hot that day, and would require waking up at 6:00 AM on a weekend. After a little persuasion (see definition of ‘bribery’) with a paint night, I got a yes. And so, we went back to our first big hike. The same big boulders to climb over, the same steep climb that tired us out the first time. The same great views, except this time in summer instead of winter. We made it to the top, and I start my speech. The entire mini-speech that I had practiced in my head over and over was lost somewhere in my brain, nowhere to be found. I said something romantic (hopefully) and after a whole bunch of jibberish, I asked if she would marry me so that we can continue going on these adventures and more, together, forever. This time, the answer to my question was an immediate yes.

- Parth