We are getting married!

From John's perspective: Good thing Ali replied to my direct message, or else we would have never made it here! We both went to the same college, SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Utica, NY. Ali was a freshman at the time, I was a sophomore. Once I returned to campus for the start of winter semester in late January, I started to see her on campus more and more. I can't recall exactly how it happened, but she popped up on my Instagram feed. I thought, wow, this girl is so cute. I followed her account, and that was it. She posted pictures quite a bit, so I continued to like them over the coming weeks, hoping she would follow me back. After about 3 weeks or so, I decided to take a shot on Thursday night at 9:50pm and send her a direct message. It read "Hey! I've seen you on campus a few times, I think you are pretty cute, I figured I would take a shot and say hi :)" Within the hour as I was at Applebee's with my friends, I had my first reply from Ali that read "Awh, thank you so much! Made my day :) :) anyway hey I'm Ali" and the rest was history! We continued to talk over the weekend and decided we wanted to meet in person the following Monday, after classes of course. We got to know each other for the next two months until I officially asked her to be my girlfriend on April 14, 2017. We would continue to fall in love and grow together in life over the next five years. At last, I knew it was time to get down on one knee. On May 14, 2022 at the beach of Delta Lake State Park, I asked her to marry me. After the pure shock and surprise of the moment settled in, she said yes! 💍

As John had said, we met at SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Utica, NY. We first started talking over Instagram messenger. When messaging back and forth, I found that he was the only guy that I have talked to with the right intentions. He wanted to get to know me and not only find a girl to date but a best friend. Truthfully, at first, I only gave him my number because I lost internet connection. To this day he still doesn't believe me. To be fair, I have never met anyone more kind and respectful. From day one, John has made sure that I always feel special, loved, and cared for. As I often say, "we are like an old married couple". And although we may have our differences, in a way we have become one. And on September 16th, 2023 we will be married.