We met on the first day of freshman year in the Philippines. We happened to be seat mates, and slowly started to build a friendship throughout high school. Fun fact: we were each other's first valentine date in 2007! 8 years flew by and we both had opportunities to work abroad - Katrice in New York & Marvin in Russia. With a few months left before leaving, we decided to explore the possibility of a relationship, even if it meant having to do long distance. Safe to say, it was the best decision we made!

During our trip to Maui, Hawaii we planned to go watch the sunrise at Haleakala National Park with a peak of 10,023 feet which took us around two hours to drive up early in the morning. After enjoying the sunrise and the scenic views above the clouds, we walked around the area a bit more to take some photos. At one point, as we were posing, I could see in the corner of my eye that he was starting to get down on one knee. I looked over and realized that it was finally happening. I said YES and we were engaged!