The first time I saw Divya was during a club meeting I was asked to go to my freshman year at NCSU. I heard they were giving out free Taco Bell so naturally I had to go. As soon as I walked into the room, I saw this beautiful girl standing beside the counter helping set up. I tried to scan the rest of the room for people I may know but my eyes kept going back to her. I could not take my eyes off of her. Well, I didn’t talk to her at that time and figured I would never see her again since there were 33,000 students on campus. Within the first few weeks of school, I got a message on Facebook from a peer who asked me to tryout for the NC State Raas team. I guess word got out that I am a great dancer or they were desperate for guys to join the team- probably the latter. On a whim, I opted to go to tryouts and guess who was already there? Divya! I did my best to go for the mysterious vibe and did not speak to her during tryouts. Obviously, due to my natural talent, I made the team. During practice, I opted to continue to not speak to her- gotta build that mystery! We were ultimately paired together as partners due to our similar height. I finally decided to break the silence and tried to keep my cool while making her laugh during practice. Some other members of the team started inviting me to outings and as I hung out with them I also got to spend more time with Divya. We eventually exchanged numbers and began texting everyday. We built an incredibly strong friendship and shared everything with each other. Pretty soon, we were inseparable. I used to run across campus to wait for her to get out of class in the Fox Lab courtyard just to walk her to her dorm which was a mere 200 feet away. Three years later, she finally agreed to go out on a date with me. Seven years after that, I proposed to her in that same courtyard. – Kishan Patel, PharmD, BCPS

KP and I had just moved to Charlotte, NC when my soul sister Mary asked to come visit. She picked a weekend during a home NCSU football game and since she wanted to go we 'decided' to meet up in Raleigh. Spoiler alert: we never went to the game. On her last day in town, we decided to go to campus to take a walk down memory lane and get some cute pictures. We managed to take a few by the bell tower before making our way across campus. I pointed out other spots for us to checkout but Mary was on a mission to checkout the Fox lab courtyard. I remember telling her that the courtyard reminds me of KP to which she responded "Oh? Do tell!" and I launched into the story of how KP would wait for me there before walking me to my classes. As soon as I noticed the rose petals, gift and chalkboard sign with my name on it, I immediately burst into tears. I somehow managed to ask Mary if I should take a picture of the setup to which she exclaimed "No! Open the gift, crazy!" KP had written me a letter- although I have no idea how he expected me to read it through my tears- and at the end of the letter he asked me to turn around where I found him waiting on one knee. As I nodded yes, our friends ran out cheering from their hiding places which of course caused me to burst out into more tears. I am so grateful for this man- for always treating me with such kindness and for patiently loving me until I woke up to see what was standing right in front of me. We cannot wait to share this moment with you all! -Divya Sreenivasan, BadA, ABCD