An Indecent Proposal

So, this blog post is probably going to be the most important thing I'll ever write. If you're a newcomer to my blog and generally skim articles, I implore you to please take the time to read this one. If you're a friend or family member of myself, I absolutely demand it.

These days, my life has pretty much come together in ways that I'd never before dreamed. I've got an idea of where I want to be in the years to come, and I've got a great girl to share it all with. Despite only being young myself, I have thought to myself for the longest time that I may not ever find somebody that would get me. You know, really get me.

I've been afraid to show my true self to most of the world, but I've found a girl that I can be myself around and know that she won't shy away in fear. She recently made the comment that I hadn't mentioned her in my blog for a fortnight; She'd apparently been counting. It bewilders me that people take the time to actually read my opinion on the world, but if I only had one reader in the world I wouldn't care. If only she read my words, I'd be happy. See, this is me happy.

Okay, so that's not an invitation to stop visiting, internet, I kind of actually do care that other people tune in and it keeps me going. So, carry on.

I've done a lot of thinking lately and I've attempted to set up a rough roadmap for myself; I've been daydreaming about all of the possible paths I can take, and how it will all end up in 5, 10, 20 years. I see myself attending Uni next year, begin to pay off a second property in 5 and possibly start a family within 10. In 20 years, I want to be running my own company.

In all of these possible futures I have imagined, I can see Katie by my side in all of them. I am so lucky to have found someone so generous of spirit and heart; So kind and so caring. She is the most beautiful person I know, and I've been fortunate enough to have landed her.

I met her at the workplace in 2004 as a fresh faced teenager, when I lived in my home town of Hobart, Tasmania. While I'd spoken to her a couple of times on the phone in a professional sense, I didn't get a sense of who she was until some months later. I wore a suit to work, branded "Valentino Rossi". I wasn't to know this at the time, but as I would later learn, the same name belonged to a champion MotoGP racer whom Katie idolised. As I wasn't one of the "cool kids" in Hobart, we didn't hang out at any social occasions together however we'd kept each others company from time to time on the late shift. She ended up taking a job in the company's corporate office in Sydney, and I presumed I may not cross paths with her again after that.

Four years later, I transferred to Brisbane with stars in my eyes and dreams of being a video game designer. I intended to attend QANTM university, however I somehow had forgotten to do the financial math before I moved and soon realised that it was a pipe-dream that I wouldn't be able to pursue. At least in the circumstances I was in at the time. There's always a way, true enough, but I put the idea in the "too hard" basket and continued to work at the company that had employed me from the moment of my adulthood.

Something in me changed over the next two years, and I decided to try my luck at climbing the corporate ladder. I started small, moving up to a help desk position, before becoming a remote Analyst for a Sydney department. At the time I was living with my mates Tom and Sara and generally loving life. I honestly didn't know I was going to move to Sydney until I'd gotten a job there. Completely spontaneously, I submitted my resume just before the application deadline and to my surprise I was successful in my position.

It was then that I was reunited with Katie.

It could have all happened so differently. Who knows where I'd be today if the choices I'd made had been different.

If even just one of these events hadn't transpired, I would have never been in the position I am today, and would not be just about to ask the question I'm setting out to ask.

So, apologies for all of this lead up, but I just wanted to ask real quick:

I have never been happier, and I did not believe in marriage until quite recently, but I figured out that it's something I want and I want it with you.

Well, will you? I'm sorry, but the beautiful ring pictured above isn't actually real; I haven't bought a ring. If it were, I suspect we may have needed to have it adjusted, anyway. I deliberated about whether or not I should buy a ring for quite a while, however I eventually concluded that we can be smart about this.

I want you to have the ring that you want, and that will last a lifetime, but I can't afford that right now. Rather then do it half-arsed, I decided that doing it no-arsed now and full-arsed later might be a better prospect.

I'm not suggesting we do this immediately, we have other goals that we're trying to realise at the moment.

I also didn't know if asking you this way would have a happy ending. Should I have done the traditional thing and informed your family of my intentions? Should I have done my proposal privately, so as to circumvent any public embarrassment of a refusal? I don't know, maybe I should have. But, as I understand it marriage is supposed to be declaring "I love you" to the world, right? If so, what could be more worldly than the internet?

I realise I'm taking a big risk in doing this, but that's part of the fun isn't it? I haven't told any of my friends or family about my intention to do this, either. Well, okay. I told my brother Colin. ...and my flatmates figured it out when I asked them to take a photo of me on one knee in a suit.

I love you Katie, and I want the world to know. I want to spend my life with you, and I want to start a family with you some day.

Your move, babe. Together we could rule the world.