Hey friends and family,
I thought I would share with all of you the story of my proposal to Erin on June 20th of 2010. I had planned this moment in my head many months prior trying desperately to manipulate all the details without spilling any of this exciting information, not even to my closest of friends. This meant I had to be creative if I were to execute the perfect proposal. The answer to my dilemma came one morning while at the University of Guelph library busily doing what every other student at the library does, checking my e-mail incessantly.
I received congratulations from the University of Victoria telling me I had been accepted to a week intensive study program of digital humanities. What that entailed I was clueless to, still, I was ecstatic to realize I had won myself free airfare to and from the west coast of Canada and as a result my plan of proposal was set into motion.
I met Erin at the Vancouver airport where we rented a cheap hatchback and began our journey through the interior of British Columbia. The plan was to make a loop through B.C. reaching as far as Jasper in western Alberta. I’m sure I could rant for hours of tales from our journey and likely put to sleep several friends in the process, so I’ll avoid a tangent and skip ahead to June 20th.
We had arrived in the small town of Jasper the previous evening. It was a quaint place, nestled in a valley surrounded by seven mountain ranges. Upon our arrival it was quite clear that Jasper was far less traveled than the touristy town of Banff, located several hundred kilometres to the south. Its natural beauty burst forth from every direction. Our elation was so great, Erin did not falter for a moment when I pointed to one of the nearby snowy peaks and told her that the following day we would be climbing many thousand feet up for a snowball fight. Little did she know that this was the chosen peak for the long-planned proposal.
We awoke early in the morning, eager to begin the day’s events. We packed up our belongings, loaded them into our rental vehicle and drove to the small grocery store where we purchased the necessary provisions for our day’s journey. Breakfast consisted of a feast of yogurt, granola and fruit at the base of Whistler’s Mountain. The entrance to the trail had a sign posted detailing the risk of glaciers and the minimum 6-8 hours of hiking required to reach the summit. We remained positive having a wonderfully clear sky and warm weather on our side.
The trek began at a strong pace, but we soon realized the challenges we would face when our ascent became more vertical than horizontal. Nonetheless, our positive attitudes did not wane, even when passing three young men whom the mountain had defeated. As we climbed, our view of the world below grew at an incredible rate. The forest thinned and small streams of recently melted snow glided down our now makeshift path. The smiles on our faces would stretch farther than a ruler as we stopped for lunch on a large flat rock on a secluded slope. The journey up continued, becoming more and more treacherous as snow and rocks turned into the new landscape, and the valley below gave way to tunnel vision.
Finally, after 4 hours of hiking (we beat the sign by 2 hours!) we had reached the summit. This was where I was going to make it official. I did my best to conceal any nervousness, hoping Erin would not notice the gurgling sounds that came from my stomach. Several people had taken the lift to the summit, which made the area more populous than I had hoped. Still, I wouldn’t let this take away from our achievement, our moment. We found a nice secluded spot away from the crowds, on a large rock facing several mountain ranges and the now lego-sized town of Jasper in the valley below. We sat enjoying the most spectacular view, soaking in our sense of accomplishment. At the moment I decided to act. I removed from my knapsack a bottle of wine from our previous anniversary, two glasses and an opener. Erin was absolutely thrilled at this surprise and now realized why our provisions were unusually heavy as we trudged up the mountain.
As I was about to make my move, I heard a young women walking up beside our hideout exclaiming “What a purty view”. I waited, biting my lip and wanting her to move on, only to be disappointed as her friend approached and admired with her. After waiting several minutes Erin graciously suggested we climb to the peak of the neighbouring mountain about a kilometre away. I humbly accepted and we found ourselves a spot away from all others, on top of the world. At this point I was certain Erin knew of my plans, so I decided to try and confuse her just a little. I told her I had one more surprise for her and that she needed to close her eyes and... open her mouth. She did as requested and at that moment I unearthed the ring box from the cavernous depths of my carhartts. I lowered myself onto the smooth rock and told Erin she could close her mouth and open her eyes.
She looked down upon me and a small diamond ring resting in the shelter of its box in my outstretched hand. Her hands covered her mouth and tears began to stream down her cheeks. I looked up and finally asked in a very shaky voice “So...uhm... will you marry me”? “Of course I will” She said in a most tender voice. At that moment we were on the top of the world, and the only thing that could’ve made the moment more beautiful was a slight snowfall, since Erin had always envisioned a wintery wedding as romantic. It seemed that the day was meant to be ours, for as we stood on that rock, distant from all others but closer to each other than ever, it started to snow.
Later that evening as we celebrated with a lovely dinner and a bottle of champagne, which the owner had given us as a compliment to our wondrous story, I explained why I chose this manner of proposal. In my view, marriage is much like a mountain. It can be hard and very challenging and sometimes you even want to turn away from it, but if you stop and take a moment to simply look how far you’ve come, you’ll realize how beautiful it really is.
Thanks and I hope you all enjoyed our tale!
