My S.O. What! Valentine’s Day Proposal

There have only been two Valentine’s Days in my life that I have been involved with someone.

Once when I was in college, and it was serious at all. I got a teddy bear from a guy that I had gone on a couple of dates with. The other Valentine’s Day was very serious. It ended with a ring and a commitment to get married.

Below is an excerpt from the end of my first book, Life After Birth- A Memoir of Survival and Success as a Teenage Mother.

This may be a bit of a spoiler if you haven’t read the book yet, but I promise there is a very interesting story coming about what came after the awesome proposal you’re about to read. It is indeed another S.O. What! story of my life. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed if you read the first book, and I do believe it will make you anxious to read the one to come.

Enjoy

-Excerpt from Life After Birth

My day was filled with surprises starting before I even left my house for work. “Happy Valentine’s Day, baby!” he exclaimed kissing me on my cheek and handing me an assortment of body creams.

“Thanks, baby. I love them!” I responded after opening a few of the bottles and smelling the various scents.

“Now this one,” he continued grinning and handing me a big striped, pink bag full of cute, little underwear.

“Oooh, thanks, baby! But why are you giving me my gifts now? I’m not giving you yours until tonight.”

I was still waiting on the baker at the arena to finish the pan of lemon bars I’d ordered for him. Attending the Grizzlies games with me, he had fallen in love with the lemony dessert that could only be ordered in the luxury suites.

“I’ll see you then,” he waved me off to work with a mischievous smile.

At work, I received my third gift of a dozen pink and green tulips. In my mind, I could see him smiling and hear him saying, “I bet you didn’t know there was such a thing as AKA tulips?” Always a thoughtful gift-giver, he had selected flowers in my sorority colors. The beautiful distraction prevented me from working anymore that day.
At the end of the work day, he called me with a welcomed order, “Go straight home. I’m picking up Jaylan.”

With an even heavier than usual lead foot, I rushed home to see why I was instructed to come directly there. Welcomed by two of my favorite men, I entered my kitchen through the garage.

“Just take a seat. Sit back and relax on the couch,” Everett continued his instructions.

I didn’t say a word and just followed his orders. Trying to open a bottle of Moscato, Everett’s blissful mood turned to frustration when he broke the corker. “Ugh, I’ll be back.  I have to go to the store,” he agitatedly stated.

“No, it’s okay. We don’t have to have wine,” I tried to calm him down.

“Yes, we do.  I’ll be back!” he smiled, at least, then rushed out the door.

When he returned, he finished his preparation.

Filling three wine glasses with wine for the two of us and grape juice for Jaylan, he moved on to the salad. Plump, juicy shrimp covered leaves of lettuce on the beautiful salads he created.

“Baby, this looks so good, but I don’t like shrimp on my salad,” I complained. He looked at me like I had stolen his best friend.
“Okay,” he replied and took the plate back.

“Wait,” I insisted feeling bad about my response, “let me try it. I’ve never had it before.”
I ate it and actually loved it, but I couldn’t understand why he was so frustrated and acting so nervous.

“I have dessert!”

I was finally able to get in part of his gift.  Handing him the pan of lemon bars, his face lit up, and I knew I had done a good job.  The rest of my gifts to him didn’t even matter.

Completing the meal, it was time to say goodnight to my first and constant Valentine, Jaylan.

As we sat in my living room, my sweet and thoughtful boyfriend instructed me to relax again as he turned the television on my favorite network, HGTV.

He left the room then returned with yet another gift, silky gold sheets that matched my bedroom perfectly! “I’ll be right back!” he stated and left the room again and returned with what was surely my final gift, a nice set of bath towels to replace the ones I had used since my college days.

Finally, he took my hand and led me to my bathroom where he had drawn a hot bubble bath for me in my large, Jacuzzi tub.

Candles were lit, the music of Floetry played softly and red rose petals were strewn about the room and in the bathtub. Helping me into the tub, he gently washed my back as we talked about the day. He knew I had never had a special Valentine’s Day before, and he was ensuring I would never forget that one.

“Okay, I have one more,” he eagerly asserted.
“Another gift? Baby, you’re doing too much,” I responded, but I was anxious to see what the other gift could possibly be.
In the dim candlelight of the room, I could barely see the package he gave me, “Here you go. Open it.”
“My hands are wet, baby. Open it for me,” I requested.

Kneeling back down by the tub, Everett removed the shrink-wrap on the red velvet, heart-shaped box of chocolates.

He knew how much I loved chocolate and had given me thoughtful gifts all day. He struggled with the wrapper for a moment then handed me the box. Pulling the lid off the box, I extended the box towards him to offer him a chocolate before I indulged. He reached in and grabbed what looked to be my largest one!

“How you gonna take my biggest one?!” I exclaimed.

Ignoring me, he got on one knee and grabbed my left my hand fully removing the big chocolate candy I was about to complain about him taking. It was actually a black ring box. My mouth dropped, and my heart started to beat out of my chest.

Looking directly into my eyes he nervously uttered,

“Summer, I knew from the moment that I met you that you would be my wife.” I laughed a little on the inside because he had actually told me that when he first met me, but I just knew that would never happen because he was not my “type” and made sure he knew it. He continued, “I’m ready to be a father to Jaylan, and I want you to be a mother to Alan. Summer, will you marry me?”

Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he released a relieved smile that said, “Whew, I got it out. I said it. Now there.”

In shock, I don’t think I even said yes, but then I realized that the lyrics of the song playing at the moment he proposed were “All You Gotta Do is Say Yes”.

I sat in the tub with my mouth open as I nodded yes until he hugged me and helped me out of the tub.

Everett was excited, and so was I. However, I was more scared than excited. I love him, but am I ready for this. Lord, what if I marry him and he still leaves. How will Jaylan take this? What am I doing to my child?  Well, we’re going to be a stepfamily. This is going to be hard. I know this is what I said I wanted, but do I really? Please don’t let him change his mind now. I guess we’re doing this. Look at him, he’s so happy. But I’m so scared. Am I really ready for this?

Still excited but unsure, we spent the next hour letting everyone know that we were going to get married.

I was still in my towel when he ran into Jaylan’s room to wake him up and tell him the news. “Young Jay,” Everett started, “me and your Mama are about to get married.”

Sleepy and shocked, Jaylan didn’t know what to think, but he smiled and released a confused, “Okay.” The look on his face told me he was happy and the next night when I was talking to my new fiancé on the phone, Jaylan said, “Tell Dad goodnight.”

Still sharing the news, we called my mother.

She was happy but not really surprised because he had mentioned marriage to her earlier. In fact, he talked about it to me often, but I brushed him off because we had only been dating a few months. My dad didn’t even answer the phone that night. It was late, but my new fiancé had already asked for my dad’s permission to marry me a month after we started dating when he met him for the first time at Christmas. We also called Everett’s family who already knew and had even seen the ring. I called my closest friends, but none of them answered the phone. It was Valentine’s night so I figured they were all enjoying the holiday too.

Wearing my ring to work the next day, I was eager to show it off to my friends there.

I walked into my co-worker Staci’s office where Teresa sat across from her desk. Taking the seat next to them, I made casual conversation asking how the Valentine’s Day holiday had gone for them. They shared how they had spent the night before, and then it was my turn to reveal my big news.  Lifting my right hand from over my left one, I placed my left hand on Staci’s desk expecting screams of excitement. Instead, they both looked at the ring and started laughing. What? Are they making fun of my ring? Surely not. This ring is beautiful. What’s so funny? 

My confused face demanded an explanation. “Summer, congratulations! We’re so happy for you, but we already knew!”

“No, you didn’t. I called both of y’all last night. No one answered their phones!”

Teresa explained, “Girl, Everett showed us all the ring at Aimee’s party. What’s so funny is how you came in here acting like you didn’t have anything big happen last night.” The week before, Everett and I attended a 30^th birthday party for my friend Aimee. One by one, Everett had taken my friends outside to show them the ring and share his plans for proposing to me the following week. I couldn’t believe my friends were able to keep the secret for a whole week!

“How in the world were you able to keep the secret from me?”  I inquired. They responded in unison, “There was no way we were going to ruin that surprise.”
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Happy Valentine’s to those of you who are in love, those who once were in love, and those who will be in love again. In the meantime and in-between time, the most important thing is to first and always LOVE YOURSELF (be sure to read my post about the awesome Love Yourself fundraising event we had last Thursday benefiting the S.O. What! Foundation).

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I’m Summer Owens, and my passion is helping youth and young adults realize success no matter what obstacles they face. As an international resilience and leadership keynote speaker, author, S.O. What! Success Coach, and creator of the S.O. What! Literacy, Life Skills, and Character Education curriculum, I empower people to say, “So what!” to even their greatest challenges.  provide a framework to help people see past their challenges and focus on solutions using the S.O. What! Success System (Overcome Obstacles + Eliminate Excuses + Calculate Choices = S.O. What! Success). Through keynotes, workshops, books, online courses, and workbooks, I use life’s challenges and my own story of resilience as a rape survivor and teen mom success story to help others confidently pursue their dreams.

Looking for an inspiring college motivational speaker? A high school literacy curriculum? A middle school life skills workbook? A great example for teen mothers? A women’s empowerment or single mother’s conference speaker?  I’m your girl and will help any audience say, “S.O. What!”.

www.SummerOwens.com