A2 Say I Do!

If you ask Aaron, he will for sure say that there is no such thing as "love at first sight" or "the one." Alina proved to be the exception. Before Alina and Aaron formally met at Michigan State University, they ran into each other at least three times before! Aaron first saw Alina at a choir invitational when they were seniors in high school at Haslett HS and Okemos HS respectively. All of the states top programs gathered at MSU for a day full of magnificent singing. He saw Alina singing up on stage and didn't hear a note the choir sang. A few months later, he was supporting a friend at their voice teacher's recital. Alina happened to also be a student of that teacher and was again up on stage! Towards the end of their senior year, Alina was at Haslett performing in the band for the tri-city invitational. Aaron just so happened to be recording the video for that event. The footage may focus a bit too much on the oboe section! Finally, Aaron and Alina auditioned on the same day for MSU, but Alina was holding an oboe and Aaron feared they wouldn't be in the same program. Alina does not remember seeing Aaron at any of the events. Fast forward to the start of their first year at MSU. They spent the entire school year saying they were "just friends" to everyone to make sure they could prove it to others and themselves. But by the end of the summer, as the sun set on the shore of Lake Michigan, Aaron asked Alina to be more than "just buddies." Nine years later, Aaron asked Alina to marry him, this time on the shore of the East River in New York during sunset at the park by their apartment that they have lived in together since 2019. There was sea glass washing up against the shore adding little twinkles of sound to the evening. Staying true to their musical matrimony, he asked her to marry him by writing and recording a song for her and accompanying himself on piano. The poetic form ends with a rhyme scheme that Alina had to finish with "yes."

Alina and Aaron were both enrolled in MSU's Early Childhood Music Program as infants! It is more than likely that the two of them were singing together long before they could even speak. Fun bonus, Alina and Aaron both taught these classes at MSU 20 years after being students of the same class.