On a cold late November evening in 2017, Aesha and her best friend, Kelly, headed to the Dollar Tree in Harrisonburg for some wrapping paper. Kelly, the social chair of their sorority, had planned a Christmas themed party for that night with Delta Sig, a fraternity on campus. Naturally, as social chair and best friend of the social chair, Kelly and Aesha had to go all out for the Christmas theme. They put on their best themed outfits, put a ribbon in their hair, and left for the pre-game ready to have a girls night. Meanwhile, less elegantly, Ted and his roommates were digging through their closets trying to find something “christmas-y” to wear. After finding the perfect flannel, they grabbed their twisted teas, called a ride, and headed out to West Market Street. Ted had no idea that his life would change forever that night. While socializing at the pregame, Aesha noticed a guy she didn’t know walking towards her from the corner of her eye. At first she thought nothing of it, but then he stopped in front of her and joined her conversation. The stranger introduced himself to her, said his name was Ted, and told her he was from northern Virginia, something they had in common. Thinking that he may have gotten stuck in the crowd, Aesha was cordial but as the others excused themselves, she soon found herself still talking to this new guy - which was exactly what Ted was hoping for. The two of them talked all night. Ted told her about his goals for the future, and Aesha told him all about how she grew up, moving from Virginia to Germany to Qatar. They talked about the world, politics, and how they wanted to make a difference. ….Aesha will never admit this, but it didn’t take long for her to find Ted charming. He immediately felt comfortable to her. Like she wasn’t actually talking to a stranger. He seemed different from the other guys she knew at JMU. He seemed down to earth, genuine, and maybe even special. Ted felt that he had just been lucky enough to meet the most stunning, compassionate, open-minded girl in the whole entire world. They parted ways not thinking they would see much of each other after that night but neither of them could deny the connection between them. They both looked for excuses to talk to each other, and before long they were spending a lot of time together. It was clear that Aesha’s first instinct about Ted was right, he was special. Luckily for Ted, towards the end of the spring semester, Aesha did the hard part by asking the scariest question she could think of - “what are we?” Aesha and Ted both shared how strongly they felt about one another and happily learned that they had the same feelings about taking their relationship further. They made it official on June 2nd, 2018 even though Aesha's puppy, Scotch, wasn't quite so sure about sharing attention with this new guy (spoiler alert! Ted is Scotch’s favorite). It wasn’t until years later that Aesha found out that the night they met wasn’t just coincidence or because he got stuck in the crowd. Ted saw her long before she saw him, thought she was gorgeous, and had to meet her. Even though Ted made it seem like he joined her conversation on accident, his goal was to talk to her along. Ted wasn’t just special, he was really smooth too. Fast forward through graduating college, finishing grad school, moving back up to DC, adopting their two kitties, Pete and Willow, and eventually getting an apartment together, Ted and Aesha always made their relationship work and have constantly strengthened their love. Ted knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Aesha. When it was his turn to finally ask her the next big question for their relationship, his hands shook, but with a big smile on his face, he proposed to Aesha on October 9th, 2023 on a perfectly rainy morning in historic Kyoto, Japan. Don’t ask either of them what Ted said when he asked her to marry him. All that matters is they both remember her response, “absolutely.”