Those of you who have proposed and been rejected, or declined a proposal - what's your story?

My family moved into the first floor of a two story duplex when i was in the third grade. I didn't really know any one on that side of town. New school, new friends, starting fresh. There was, however, a girl who lived on the second floor of our duplex. We were friends at home, but never really friends at school. In fact we barely pretended to know the other existed the second we got on the bus together. To this day I'm not sure why. As we entered middle school I got more involved in athletics, Football in the fall, Basketball in the winter, and Baseball in the summer. She had her own set of activities, band, student council, that type of thing. She always showed up for my games and I never really made much of it.

Fast forward into High School and we had completely drifted apart, despite the fact that we lived in the same building. We were always polite to each other. The usual, "Hello", "Hows it going" "Did you hear about ___". Toward my senior year she re entered my life and we began talking on a more consistent basis and she started showing up to my games again. At the end of our senior year, we began dating officially, but it progressed slowly.

I didn't put forth the effort in school I should have and to make a long story short, college for me was unfortunately, not an option. She however received a partial academic scholarship to the state school. I joined the army. Before we parted ways, I made one last ditch effort to win her over. I asked my parents to loan me enough money to buy a decent engagement ring. Begrudgingly, they relented. I remember the day like yesterday. I got down on one knee in front restaurant where we had our first date. I asked, "Will you Marry Me?" She said it wasn't enough to make it work. "What more do you need?". And as calm as winter sunlight she said," I'm gonna need about three fifty." At this point I realized the love of my life was an 8 story tall crustacean from the paleolithic era! I shouted back "God dammit Nessie! I ain't given you no tree fiddy!" I never saw her again. We moved on to live separate lives. She has a family now as do I. We live half the country apart but I often think of what might have been if I tried a little harder in school.

/r/AskReddit Thread