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Ben and I met on Bumble 🐝 The first thing I noticed about him was his big smile, I could instantly feel his warmth. We matched and I said something about how Costa Rica is my favorite place in the world too. Ben didn’t wait too long to ask me out and our first date was at my favorite Italian restaurant 🍝🍷 it’s in a strip mall and Ben loves to make fun of me for that 😅. The conversation came so easily and we talked nonstop until the restaurant closed for the night and we were kicked out. I felt immediately at ease with Ben it was like we had always been friends and we were just catching up. I didn’t want the night to end but I also wanted to play it cool so we went our separate ways after dinner. This time I didn’t wait too long to ask him out for our second date, a night time date at the zoo, again we stayed until the zoo closed and we were the last ones to leave. We had so much fun that night we decided to go to get drinks after. I took him to one of my secret spots, a Mexican restaurant that can get a little loud and rowdy at night. Ben was so cool, he didn’t seem uncomfortable being the only non Latino in the restaurant, he loved the loud music being played and even ordered in Spanish 😍. We had our first kiss that night 😘 I knew I liked Ben a lot by then so it was time for him to pass the friend trials 😂. I invited him to Jenn’s birthday party in Atlanta for a weekend of expensive dinners and clubbing all night. Ben was so wonderful, he was so funny and sweet with my friends and he was able to hang all weekend 🍾 Right after that weekend Ben had to leave to Costa Rica for a few weeks but he agreed to meet me in Mexico City when he was done working for another friend’s birthday party. Mexico City was where we fell in love. Ben was so easy to travel with, he was so wonderful with my friends he fit right in but most importantly he embraces the people and culture of the countries he visits, I didn’t just fall in love with Ben I fell in love with the way he sees life and the world. It was through those eyes I regained my passion and sense of self. It was through his eyes I saw what I was missing. I saw home.

When Jackie invited me to come with her and her friends to Mexico, I didn't hesitate for a moment. We had only been dating for a few weeks, but I was already developing deep feelings for her. For the past three years, I'd been living in Costa Rica, renting a small house and spending my days basking in the tropical sun. So, I was there in Costa Rica, sitting on a beach, when she called and invited me to Mexico. This was February 2020 (cue ominous music). I quickly booked my flights and decided to add in some days back in the US to visit my family after Mexico. It was there in Mexico where my infatuation with this uniquely peculiar and beautiful woman began to form into something far deeper. It was her indelibly positive spirit, her generous heart, and her quickness to laugh that began to burrow into my heart. I think it was on day three of our trip in Mexico that she declared we were now exclusive, and I accepted her decree without argument. I was falling in love, and I knew then that I wanted to spend every waking minute with this wonderful woman. Little did I know, this desire would come to fruition in the most unexpected of ways. After Mexico, we boarded our flight to the US, hand in hand, both of us grinning like idiots. Once back stateside, I took her to my dad's riverside property in Sparta, TN to spend more time reveling in each other's mutual infatuation. That was when the world stopped. The news of the pandemic broke like a landslide. Days later, I was notified that Costa Rica had closed its borders. Jackie's office was shuttered, and there we were together, experiencing the end of the world, newly in love and in total shock from what we were witnessing. But even the end of the world could not dampen our rapidly deepening love. There in lockdown together, and with my father, we came to know each other on the deepest of levels, not only experiencing the collective trauma of the pandemic together, but living together as though we'd known each other for years. We passed the weeks of lockdown cooking ridiculously lavish meals, learning new baking skills, exercising together, binge watching Tiger King and the Great British Baking Show, and falling deeper and deeper in love. Over the weeks, which led into months, I came to see that my initial impressions of Jackie couldn't have been more accurate. She truly is one of the kindest and most generous people I've ever met. Her deep concern for her fellow humans and her desire to make a positive impact on her community were commensurate only with her generosity of love she offered to me. And, she and my dad hit it off in the most adorable of ways. They became besties just as she and I were growing into the partners for one another that would eventually motivate me to ask her to marry me. As the world slowly opened up, and we made our way back into the world, I was initially worried that our pandemic romance might be just that, a fairy tale that existed only in the confines of our forced isolation. But, my concerns couldn't be further from the truth. As I had the opportunity to meet her friends and family, I came to see the impact she has on all those in her life. She is the soul of every gathering, the joy of every friendship, and she became my rock, someone who truly loves me for who I am and emboldens me to pursue my passions and loftiest of ambitions. And so, it was two years to the day from that first fateful trip to Mexico during which she declared us in an exclusive relationship, that I made her hike over 1000 vertical feet up to Artist's Point in Yosemite National Park at sunset to ask her to be my wife. I know this is the best decision I've ever made. And, I couldn't be more excited to spend the rest of my life with the most wonderful woman I've ever known.