We (originally) started talking on a dating website. *Cringe* However, we never had a chance to officially meet until an entire year later due to my hang up about not "talking to more than one person at a time" and also, timing. Luckily we ended up staying friends and staying in touch through a difficult year for both of us. When we decided to actually meet up with each other, we were both a little battle scarred from some pretty bad relationships and some insane graduate study "Impostor Syndrome" but out of that initial timidness and somewhat Nihilistic outlooks on things, we found that we were both people who had grown to be whole in their own identities and beliefs and who didn't need someone to complete them, to "make them" be anything, but inevitably found something even more miraculous: a person who loves them, never gives up on them, and who chooses them, everyday. We are absolutely thrilled and over-the-moon that we will have many years of late night discussions, Netflix binges, arguments over who Genevieve wants to cuddle more, random flowers, car concerts with all the wrong song lyrics, surprise chocolates, cooking nights, dances on the kitchen floor, milling around wooded areas, great couples Halloween costumes, family board games, traveling and wandering the world, coffee house hopping, and growing through what we go through together.

I had just graduated with my MA from The University of Alabama in Huntsville and had accepted a teaching position in Madrid, Spain. I was a little nervous about the whole thing mostly because I would be living with a family that had 6 boys in their home, but also due to feeling a little bit of anxiety at the fact that I wouldn't see Mohamed for 2 months. Mohamed had always been a pretty solid example of what every good boyfriend should be, he was always understanding, supportive, and persistent (in a good way), and I never had that "terrified" anxious feeling that something just "wasn't right" like I had in the past. But then he did this one thing and it shook up my "feels" to another level. So, I was sitting in the airport with my Mom, just casually chatting over some lunch before I boarded my flight, when I get a call from Mohamed wishing me a safe trip and to call him when I arrived to my connection in Atlanta. He kept going on and on about his meeting that day with his supervisor for his PhD and then I looked up and realized that he was STANDING right there in front of me. He drove almost 2 hours just to see me for 10 minutes (max) before boarding my flight... and he definitely had office hours that day. I couldn't believe he took off work to see me for 10 minutes and that he actively chose to spend 4 hours of his life driving to see me. For me, this kind of effort was something I had never experienced before. I was really shocked. Long story short, I cried in front of the whole airport, and from that point on I was 100 percent positive that Mohamed was "the one." And I was right.

I have known Lizzy as a friend before I knew her as the best life partner anyone could have. We were always talking over social media and the phone. If anything, it just made me like her more and more and I could not wait until I saw her. When the time finally came, I walked in to the coffee place for our first date and saw the most beautiful eyes looking at me. I felt so lucky at this moment and wanted to get to know her more and more. Her eyes really captivated me and our conversation took me to a happy place where I could not see anyone but her. I really felt something different that I have not felt before; like a spark that keeps getting bigger towards the certainty that she is the one. Every time we met, I felt our connection growing stronger. Three months later was my birthday. I was living in Birmingham for my PhD studies and she was living in Huntsville finishing her Master's degree at that time. Her surprise was beyond my expectations. She spent the whole day preparing to surprise me. She even made me an amazing three-layer cherry chocolate cake! Then, she drove all the way from Huntsville to Birmingham. The best gift I had this day was seeing her. No one has ever done such effort for me in my whole life. This was the strongest sign to me that she is the one that I want to spend my life with and do my best to make her ever happy. I knew I had finally found my one.