I’ve had a variety of reactions when sharing the news of our engagement, but I think that the saddest ones are the complete lack of reactions from two of my cousins that I grew up with. It’s sad when you assume your family would care about happy news, or any significant news, in your life, and then you find out that it’s too difficult for them to even just say the words “congratulations” in any form – over the phone, text, e-mail – anything.

The responses from Chris’s side have by far been more positive, happy, and ecstatic than mine. Even his friends overall seem more excited than my own friends do. One of my best friends was tearing up when I told her about the engagement and said she anticipated crying her eyes out at our future wedding. That was probably the happiest reaction I have gotten. Two other friends were very logistical about it and mainly just asked about time frames and potential locations. His friends and family have done everything from scream and yell when they found out to actually personally call me and get the full proposal story at the wee hours of their nights. It’s been an interesting last week of seeing and experiencing reactions of people across both of our lives. In one way, it’s made me happy that there are so many people happy for us. But in another way, I’m a little bit disappointed that the reaction overall from my side hasn’t been as excited. It’s almost like a reflection of how dysfunctional my relationships are relative to Chris’s with his family and friends.