Jessica and Derek Oster Engagement Announcement

Jessica Long, daughter of The Late Steve and Sharon Long of Rapid City, SD, has become engaged to Derek Oster, son of Mike & JoAnn Oster of Rapid City, SD.

Saturday, September 1st 2018

Proposal

Derek had always mentioned to Jessica that someday he wanted to take a trip to New York City around the holidays. It was December 2015 and Jessica was on her winter break from nurse anesthesia school. She had originally planned to stay in Omaha, NE where her mother was recovering from a stem cell transplant. Jessica’s mother told Jessica that she would be okay in Omaha and wanted Jessica to try to go to New York City with Derek because Jessica needed a nice vacation since Jessica had been very stressed. Derek was living in Texas at the time for work, so they both flew to meet in New York City. Prior to their trip, Derek asked Jessica what she wanted to see while they were in New York and she said the typical attractions in the area including the “big tree” you see on TV during Christmas time. When Derek got to New York to meet Jessica he told her he had no idea what big tree she was talking about, but a man on the flight had told him of an area where there were a lot of pretty Christmas lights they should check out. They went out adventuring the city and went around a corner where there was the “big tree”. Jessica told Derek, “That’s the tree I was talking about!” Derek said to her, “Nice! Let’s go up there!,” as they made their way to the front though thousands of people. Derek found a group of people to snap a couple of pictures of them in front of the “big tree” and as Jessica was smiling at the camera, Derek got down on one knee and pulled out the ring he had been hiding in his coat pocket and asked Jessica to marry him. She of course said, “Yes!,” and soon found out Derek had been planning on asking her to marry him by the “big tree” he had been acting so clueless about for years.

How They Met

Derek and Jessica met while they both attended Central High School. Derek was a junior and Jessica was a sophomore when they met. They would chat on MSN Messenger (before the Snapchat and texting days) and on the phone for hours every day until they finally met up at a mutual friend’s house for the first time, and it has been love ever since.