We're getting married! AGAIN!

It was the beginning of the 2012 school year at the University of Southern California. Jasmine was starting her freshman year and Qahir was entering his junior year. When one of Jasmine’s roommates went to meet a couple of family acquaintances from Kenya; Jasmine tagged along in hopes to keep her roommate company and to provide a potential out should their new friends turn out to be unbearably awkward. It was in fact NOT awkward (whew)! Qahir bought Jasmine’s milkshake claiming seniority – it was called “The Hunk of Burning Love” as fate would have it. The two hit it off right away, finding common ground in music, food and feeling a little homesick. Qahir claims he was oblivious to Jasmine’s obvious interest. Jasmine claims it was only “like at first sight.” Either way, they left that first meeting with new numbers in their phones and a plan to hang out soon – safe to say the rest is history!

March 2020, the start of what we were told would be two weeks at home. Qahir asked Jasmine to pick up some supplies from the grocery store before they hunkered down for a while. Jasmine returned home to a bouquet of flowers and a mysterious looking "advent calendar". Each box was filled with postcards and memories of Jasmine and Qahir's lives together: college days, many travels, time spent back and forth in LA and San Francisco over 4 1/2 years of long distance and their newest adventure - taking on the city that never sleeps. The last box was NOT a ring as Jasmine thought it might be, but a postcard addressed to Mrs. Popat. Jasmine ugly cried before Qahir could ask the words and get the ring out. He managed to kneel on one knee with the box upside down and Jasmine eventually remembered to say YES after nodding aggressively for several minutes.