The midnight yell that changed my life was the second of my freshman year at Texas A&M university. I hadn’t seen my best friend Eunice since I dropped her off for the Corp of Cadets training and I was sick worried if she was good. When I went to meet her up, I learned all about the Corp life and how extremely different it was from my freshman life. While she was catching me up and explaining things to me, Caleb knocked, stated “male” and proceeded to enter. Unlike all her other buddies, Caleb didn’t even notice I was in the bed across from her and just went on to tell her what he came for and left. Just like that, I began my theory that he hated me. Many midnight yells after and a couple of football games I started to think he really didn’t like me. “I always seem to be bothering him“I thought to myself. Turns out I was wrong. As many friends told me he really liked me and I was totally falling for him, but I couldn’t quite figured his feelings for me. Until November 9th, 2013 when after the last home game for the season was over and in a quiet lounge in the quad while listening to his fast paced heartbeat he asked me out. I must say I quickly said “Ofcourse!”.

I wish this is where I could say it was “Love at First Sight”, that we knew the moment we met that we were destined to be together. However, life is rarely scripted as well as a novel. Maritza and I met after the second midnight yell, freshman year at A&M. Maritza had come with Eunice Fafiyebi, who insisted Maritza be escorted home by one of her new buddies in the Corps. The rest of the fall was not a romantic whirlwind, but rather a process of growing friendship, marked by visits to Kyle Field. At the end of the football season, we began dating. Next came a season of double dates, growing affections, and learning each other's quirks. We got dating advice from our friends, met each other’s friends, and grew closer as a pair of individuals. The season stretched into months, and months into years, studying together in the library, attending Breakaway, SHPE, Church, and of course, Aggie Football. The (many) trips Maritza took abroad and the summers away from College Station only made the heart grow fonder. We became a solid couple, and began sharing relationship advice of our own. Friends we made in college knew us as a couple, and graciously gave their friendship to both of us. Graduation arrived, and we were both among the loudest and proudest Industrial Engineers in 2017. Work began, in Austin and Houston, leading to 2 years of long-distance dating, interrupted by visits once a month and one week-long trip to Europe. This long chapter is finally drawing to a close. A wedding date is in sight. Then the next chapter will begin, with a less defined plot than a novel, but every bit as thrilling.