By INGRID MALDONADO
Student Reporter
The sparkle stopped people in their tracks, but the story behind it stayed with them.
Once people saw the beautiful shiny diamond ring, it was hard to overlook.
Her eyes shined as she spoke about how she came to wear it.
The ring may have been the starting topic, but overall it became a bigger story of love, patience and a future they are building together.
Edna Garcia is from Beaver and is a junior studying psychology at NWOSU.
She is quite active on campus with Northwestern Scholar Ambassadors and being in leadership at the NWOSU’s Baptist Collegiate Ministry.
Many see Garcia as bright and cheerful and now she wears something bright on her ring finger.
Garcia met Daniel Riojas her freshman year at NWOSU. She had a class with him her freshman year, had mutual friends and the BCM helped their relationship grow further.
They officially started dating her sophomore year and a year later he proposed.
November 2, 2024, Riojas and Garcia became fiancés. They were in Oklahoma City for the Oklahoma BCM volleyball tournament.
Riojas has a cousin who is a photographer, and she captured the entire thing while it was raining.
“He was like ‘aw you look so cute, let me take a picture of you,’” Garcia said, “and so I’m facing that way and then he turns around and is on one knee.”
They were in a park somewhere near downtown Oklahoma City, explained Garcia.
She said she felt like it was coming so she made sure to look nice. From meeting him her freshman year, becoming official her sophomore year, then being proposed to her junior year, they are now preparing for their future together.
“So, I would just say get to know them really, really well, not necessarily become friends first, but definitely fall in love with their personality and who they are before the looks and everything because that’s, you know, that’s going to go away,” Garcia explained.