He never expected to find “the one” in a mobile dating app.
But art teacher Kevin Cabrera, 25, found his match in Daisy Mae Amora, 21, a psychology major who is set to graduate this year.
“She’s a graduating college student at this time. I helped her with her research papers and thesis; while she helped me with my studies for my upcoming first take of the Licensure Exam for Teachers (LET),” he said.
Kevin said that he found a partner, a best friend and a girlfriend – all rolled into one – in Daisy. They help each other achieve their dreams while at the same time, relish new things that they discover in each other.
While some people might deem them too young to find true love, especially that they have only been together for a year and five months; for Kevin, one is never too young to find a lifetime partner.
“It is not about how long you have been,” he said. “It’s the quality of the time,” said Kevin of the relationship that he has built with Daisy in the months that they’ve been together.
They want to get married and start a family while still young as the couple believes that those who get to their 30s become too focused on their careers rather than in building a relationship.
“I think it’s better to start early with nothing yet and help each other to achieve each other’s goals,” said Kevin, a Fine Arts graduate of the University of the Philippines College Cebu.
His dream is to continue doing his art and put up his second one-man show while being a teacher; while Daisy wants to be a clinical psychologist while doing photography on the side.
Photography was what brought the two of them together in a dating application.
When Cupid struck
Kevin always dreamed of starting a family early so as to be fit and young enough to play with his children.
He recalls that when his parents took them to Disneyland, they could not get on the rides with their children due to some health issues.
Kevin also couldn’t get over the fact that due to their work, his parents barely had time for him and his brother.
Because he wanted to be a parent in his 20s, Kevin had always been in search of someone to settle down with while dating a number of women and even signing up with online dating sites and apps.
“I always had luck with meeting new girls there,” he said. “They were fun but not what I was looking for.”
He had gotten so desperate that Kevin once thought of finding a baby-maker or getting a girl pregnant just so he could father a child.
But as fate would have it, out of the blue, Kevin found a match in OKCupid.com.
The girl was different.
Instead of waiting for him to message her, she sent him a message. And it was not because she found him attractive. She was simply interested in photography.
“She told me that she was so interested with me because it said in my profile that I used to teach basic photography, which I did, and that caught her interest,” said Kevin.
The first time Kevin laid his eyes on Daisy was at a convenient store to teach her the basics on photography.
At that time, she was seeing a Briton while he was dating a bartender.
Kevin recalls that when he first saw her, Daisy looked like a young teenager – cute, petite and bubbly that he thought he was going to land in jail for dating a minor.
Their next meetings became tutorial sessions on photography.
A month later, Daisy decided to take matters into her own hands upon learning that Kevin had stopped seeing the bartender.
As they sat across each other with Kevin showing Daisy how to handle a camera, she asked him a question: Did he find her attractive.
Although taken aback, Kevin said yes.
“She then hugged my foot with both her feet and proceeded to ask if i would be interested to date her,” recounts Kevin.
Having already established a friendship, he agreed to Daisy’s proposal.
Looking back, Kevin said, it was the “best decision” he ever made.
The couple now plans to get married – first in a civil ceremony in 2019 and a church wedding later as soon as Kevin had the money to spend for Daisy’s dream wedding.
But the would-be-groom has yet to propose because he still needs to make a pizza costume. Daisy, he said, dreamt that a pizza would propose to her – something that Kevin would gladly oblige.
He is also saving up for her dream wedding – her in a sexy gown and a reception on top of a cliff which overlooks the sea.
In the meantime, Kevin and Daisy plan nothing grand on Valentine’s Day this Wednesday. It will be just unlimited chicken wings followed by a “Black Panther” movie date.
The movie is for him while the food is for her.