We're getting married!

It was our freshman year in college. The “village” they had us in was only a handful of buildings. I had the same path out of my building towards campus, and didn’t do much meandering through it, so unfortunately, we never bumped into each other. Just rumors of this girl named Ariana Dulberg. It’s fitting that she started out as a legend because she is 100% legendary, as anyone who knows her can confirm. Sophomore year, a couple of my roommates were hanging out with her and her roommates and decided to kick things off! With a quick snatch of the phone, I received a text from Ari Dulberg. It was my roommate on her phone, but I think it turned out to be Ari soon enough. Soonafter, I had the privilege of accompanying her to sorority date dash. I was a typical frat dude who thought this would be another excuse to get liquored up during the daytime, but something was different with Ari, and it instantly became clear that I was lucky to be with her at that event. The way she carried herself was pretty admirable to me. She was one of the executives in her sorority and I could tell that she took the reins with responsibility, and had so much drive. On the drive home, a couple of our friends were having a little spat and I’m no stranger to handling awkward situations with more awkwardness. So I blurted something out, probably along the lines of a dad joke to defuse the tension, but it was something that managed to elicit a chuckle from Ari. She’s stuck to that moment over the years, as the defining moment when she actually decided I might be worth getting to know! Once I finally had my foot in the door, I knew I had to seal the deal. We went to a place as fittingly legendary as Ari herself, called Shari’s. They specialized in taking chunks of pie and putting them into milkshakes. Behold, the pie shake. For some reason, Ari kept giving me more & more time. And that time felt INFINITE. It really felt like together, we resided somewhere that just didn’t exist anywhere else. We would hangout at her dorm and talk until the sun came up. I vividly recall the first time I looked at my phone during one of these conversations and seeing 6am, which put a goofy grin on my face. It might have been out of delirium, but I think it was because I was cognizant of the fact that the dynamic of us was so fascinating it took 100% of my focus. At the end of that year, I went back home to SoCal and she stayed around campus hanging out with our friends. She’s obviously the cooler one between us so my friends were probably more her friends, in reality. We kept in touch with texts and phone calls at the end of the night when she could spare a few minutes. There were a few nights where I might have let an “L” word slip, or laid it on thick by asking about a relationship, but I could usually blame those on a few too many drinks when she responded hesitantly. As we all know, drunken words are sober thoughts, and I couldn’t hide them for long. Coming back to school, we decided that we couldn’t ignore what I had been advocating for, and that Ari did, in fact, have some mutual feelings. I know – up until now, everyone probably thought I was desperately chasing a girl out of my league. And I was, but look where we are now! No shame there. I’ve spent a lot of time on the beginning here because we both believe that fundamentals, basics, the simple things… are so important. There is so much intention and effort behind getting things started. That’s not to diminish what has occurred over the last eight years in our lives, because some of the most important developments have happened in that timeframe. We’ve moved in together; Ari coaxed me into my first forays of international travel; we got a dog; we watched Ari pull in THREE MASTERS DEGREES!!! (refer back to her visible drive at the date dash); we got engaged. Nothing is coming to an end. You just read the prologue of our story, and we’re excited to have you all written into the next chapter. See you soon enough!