A new friend of mine, Josh Gibson, invited me to meet up with him and his then-girlfriend and her roommates at Central Park to listen to Beyoncé perform at the Global Citizen’s Festival. It was a beautiful day and I rarely passed up a chance to socialize, especially with a group of ladies. Little did I know that one of those women would turn out to be the love of my life. Mind you, none of us actually had tickets to the concert, but the women had found a heavily vegetated hill above the venue where we could hear the music, though we couldn’t see a thing. It made for better conversation though since the music wasn’t too loud and there was nothing to see. The five of us spent several hours talking, dancing, and laughing together. Funny enough, during that day Selam was the only person I didn’t become immediate friends with. However, lucky for me, I would get many more opportunities over the next couple years as I frequently met up with the same crew at various events and parties, and our friendship grew steadily throughout.

For months I planned on proposing to Selam on her birthday. I spent months picking out the perfect ring, then I spent months planning what cool destination we would go for her birthday, and then where would I take her when I popped the question. Fortunately I was able to convince her not to meet up with friends in Europe for her birthday, but instead for us to take a private vacation to the pristine Glacier National Park in Montana. We spent an amazing week at the park, with her birthday (July 22nd) landing in the middle of the trip. I had to make sure not to lose the ring or let her see it for several days until her birthday. However, the ring was burning a hole in my pocket and I was so worried she’d see it prematurely, so when July 21st rolled around I decided that had to be the day. I couldn’t wait any longer. The 21st was our best weather day of the week so I brought the ring hiking with us in hopes I’d find the perfect time and place to pop the question. Alas after a long, fantastic day of hiking where no great opportunities presented themselves for a private moment, I decided to audible. The new plan was to bring her to come back to the park after dinner and watch the sunset over Lake McDonald. She was very tired so it took some convincing, but as always, I wore her down. Thank God. After I took her to the best restaurant in town where we had an unforgettable dinner and tons of laughs, we went back to Lake McDonald as planned and watched the sunset. At first there were other people around, but fortunately they left just as the sun was setting over the lake. Within seconds I got down on one knee, and the rest is history.