In 2017, I was asked if I wanted to rent my sister's med school friend's apartment over a summer (Katie Maz now also adopted sister). I wasn't in too much of a hurry to move out of the luxury set up I had living with my parents in East Aurora where I was woken up every morning with a nice cup of tea, packed lunches every day, and frequent visits from the "gas fairy". But in normal Joanna yes-man behavior I said why not and moved in in a matter of days. I found a 20-foot beer bong in the closet and obviously had to use it right away. I met Aman since he was my first beer-bong victim living in the apartment one floor down, as I knocked at his window with the end of the beer bong. Funaman, his widely known alter ego, of course was up for the challenge after confusingly peering up at me from his window, and we quickly became best friends. We hung out almost every day the entire summer... Colter Bay Wednesdays, finding the best nachos in Buffalo, movie marathons, kidnapping my parents' dogs from East Aurora, and so on. Later in 2017, I was asked by my work to move to Los Angeles for 6 months with 2-day heads up. Again, being the yes-man I am, I agreed to it and was excited for the new adventure. I wasn't even there for one full week without getting a visit from Aman during his busy med school schedule. In fact, I was visited by Aman almost every other weekend I was there and best friend status slowly became boyfriend status (due to Aman's persistence). I want to say that summer and those weekends in California were the best days of my life, but somehow our lives together just keep getting better :) 2 dogs, many apartments together, adventures around the world, 10000 songs we've made up along the way, all the belly laughs, and 6 inseparable years later, Aman still makes me the happiest girl in the world! Eternally grateful for that 20-foot beer bong, the amazing people who raised Aman, and my sister for bringing him into my life!

Joanna and I met on June 5th, 2017 (see note below to prove it). Joanna’s sister, Victoria, and I were in the same medical school class. In med school we all had a great group of friends. One of our friends, Katie Maz, lived in the apartment above mine. The layout was as follows: first floor was colter bay one of the best bars in Buffalo (I may be biased), second floor was my apartment, and third floor was Katies apartment. Katie decided to leave for the summer and so her apartment was up for grabs. Before I knew it, Victorias little sister had moved in above my apartment. The rest is history…kind of.   That summer we had a lot of experiences together but Joanna did not want to date because of work changes and other dumb reasons (again I am biased). Eventually Joanna ended up moving to California that summer and I was left all alone. I filled my time with exercise and running a marathon (haven’t ran since). All the while that Joanna was in California, I would set an alarm to wake me up at midnight so I could talk to her on the phone before she went to bed over on the west coast. We continued to talk and continued our friendship, I spent a lot of weekends and student loans traveling to California that summer (sorry mom and dad). Eventually, like any sane person would think, I assumed we were dating.   On a Friday that I had flown into California to visit Joanna, I mustered enough courage to ask her “so what are we, are we dating or…” Joanna’s reply, which I will never forget, was “I’m just chilling”. Imagine how awkward that weekend was going to be when on the first day there this happened. Rest assured, we all know Joanna and know she can't be awkward if she tried.   Fast forward many hangouts, phone calls, and dates we eventually started dating – although we still don’t have a date of when that was.   Since then Joanna and I have gone on so many adventures together. We have been through board exams, medical school, moving to another state in a pandemic, traveling the globe, getting two awesome children (Winston and Leo). Joanna and I are complete opposites, but it is true what they say, opposites attract. She will forever be the (much needed) yin to my yang. We hope you can come join us on our next big adventure of getting married!