Surprising your partner with an engagement ring is one of the most exciting and stressful things a person can go through in their life. And those feelings are not exclusive to the common person, as Canberra star Simi Sasagi can attest to.
For four months prior to popping the question, he had the ring hidden, waiting for the right moment. But the problem with his hiding place was that he had kept the ring in a shoebox in the back of his closet. His fear was that should the feeling take his now fiancee, that she would opt for a spring clean and stumble across the ring.
We all have boxes full of miscellaneous stuff around our houses, apartments and wherever else we may live and certainly a good portion of them can be thrown away after a quick check. Simi Sasagi finally popped the question four months after buying the ring for his now fiancee, he took a massive risk by hiding it in a shoebox in the back of his closet. The pair have been together for eight years after they met at a Boost Juice counter in Newcastle. Back then Sasagi said he knew right away that he had to approach Kate.
Should his partner get the urge to spring clean, there was no guarantee that the shoebox and the ring with it would survive the clearout. 'I knew she wouldn't look – well, I was hoping she wouldn't – in any of the shoe boxes,' Sasagi told The Australian. 'I had bought her engagement ring in January, I have a bit of a shoe collection, so I just hid it in the sole of a pair of shoes. I had been planning it for a while. I booked a place at Brindabella Hills winery. It was her birthday, so I told her we were going there for a special dinner, so I was able to surprise her.'
The proposal may have taken four months from when he bought the ring, but Sasagi recounted how, eight years prior, he had been met with the feeling of young love from the moment he set eyes on Kate Hughes. He first saw her at a Boost Juice counter in Newcastle. 'She was working there,' Sasagi said. 'I remember I used to go in and order either a Protein Supreme or Mango Magic, and hope she was there. It turned out that we had mutual friends, so I asked for details and we hit it off. She's been a rock, we've been together long before I made grade and by my side through the dark times. When I was homesick, she and her family bought me in with open arms.'
Sasagi made the trip to Australia by himself at just 16, and credits his Fiancee Kate's family with taking him and helping when he felt homesick. And his homesickness is completely understandable when diving deeper into his incredible journey to the NRL. At just 16 years of age, Sasagi was standing at the airport by himself having just arrived in Australia chasing his rugby dream. 'I was scared. I'll tell you that,' Sasagi said. 'I remember looking at how big my suitcase was. I was thinking, 'Okay, wow, this isn't a holiday.' That I was really leaving home and going to Australia, an unfamiliar country, to live a new life. I moved over in November but knew I'd be home for Christmas. So that helped ease some fear. It helped knowing that it wasn't a situation where I was never going to see my family again.'
And now he will continue to build his own family in Australia with his fiancee Kate after she said yes to his proposal.
