Balson and I actually met at my grandmother's home. I had just came from Haiti for about a week now, and I had barely knew any english. That evening at my grandmother's house, I walked into the kitchen with the shopping bags in my hand to reach the cabinet to organize the products as he was sitting there and talking to my cousin. I passed as if he did not exist and he continue to speak as if I had never entered the room. We had noticed each other but nothing neither of us did made such indication. Later on down a couple of months between hello and how are you ? I find myself being helped on my algebra homework by him and walking me to school. We had grown closer as friends. My prejudice of him as a young American kid had disappear because of his kindness and willingness to help me navigate this new world that I had just entered and knew nothing about. The one thing that really stood out to me was when I became a senior in high school and needed to take my SAT's.
He proposed to take me to take my test. It was scheduled so early that I knew we had to wake up at 4:00 AM in the morning to get to the rest site. As usual, as independent and with my "don't need nobody" attitude, I woke and had gotten myself ready. Balson had asked me the night prior to call him in the morning so that he can come with me. To my surprised, when i called, he picked up his red and grey flip phone and made his way to my building. This really impressed me because that was my first indication of my feelings developing for him. I asked myself why he was willing to do this but yet never really had the courage to ask him personally. However, as you may guess, he started to like me as the time, yet we said nothing to each other.
Months had passed. I was transitioning into college and he was helping me figuring things out as my transition to college was different from High school student who were born and raised here. One day, after taking me to kingsborough to drop my school documents to the admissions office, we decided to go by the beach. We eventually started talking about our feelings to each other and I mentioned the four big letter words. Five (5) years later and I am transitioning from college to becoming a professional to work at CUNY and he, already established working for DOE, he proposed at the same exact beach where we professed our love to each other.