See You There!

We live in Miami, Florida and have been together for 8 years. Sumedh Subodh Shah is a Neurosurgery second year Resident at UM/Jackson Hospital. Megan Marie Marlow is a Stem Cell Manufacturer at Longeveron Inc. We both studied Biology in Undergrad and are proficient Research scientists. In terms of religion, Sumedh is Jain and Megan is Christian. Sumedh enjoys basketball, cooking, and going to the movies. Megan prefers running, baking, and gardening. Together we like watching anime, reading, and exploring new places! Sumedh is the son of Sucheta and the late Dr. Subodh Shah, and has one younger brother, Supreet. Megan is the daughter of Fred and Laura Marlow, and has one younger brother, Matthew, as well as three younger sisters: Malissa, Melanie, and Mariah.

We first met in Madame Orsinger's French III class in Thousand Oaks, CA. Sumedh was the boisterous, social butterfly in the classroom and Megan was the shy new girl in school. We started talking to one another through mutual friends on Megan's tennis team (shout out to Becky, Janella, and Alayna!). Although we were fond of one another, we did not start dating until Sumedh's first year of college! Sumedh texted Megan out of the blue, "I'm just a boy standing in front of a girl, asking her to get coffee with him. Name that movie!" From then on it was constant laughter, adventures, and a whole lot of love.

We have a tradition where we buy Cream Sodas and we walk to the top of Tarantula Hill whenever we are together in Thousand Oaks, CA, the place we first met and Sumedh's Hometown. It was our 7 year anniversary and Sumedh planned a day of visiting all of our old spots, including the top of Tarantula Hill, which overlooks all of the nearby cities and has a beautiful, single bench for taking in the view. Megan had no idea what he was planning the entire time. We walked to the top with our cream sodas in hand and started looking out at the city with the sun just beginning to set for the evening. Sumedh likes to tell the Native American tale of how the stars were born, so when we got to the top, he said, "Do you remember the first time I told it to you and had you act it out? Let's do that again!" Megan remembered and she got up on top of the bench and spread her arms out wide to enact the part of a Sparrow. The story goes that the animals on Earth upset the gods who decided to throw a giant blanket over the Earth as punishment, blocking out all of the light for half of each day. The animals missed the light during the night, so they decided to try to tear down the blanket, but it was so high that none could reach it. Until one day Hawk flew with Sparrow on his back, and when Hawk was too tired to go on, Sparrow lept off his back and flew with all her might up to the very top of the sky until she finally made a single poke into the blanket, letting in a flood of light. As she fell back down, the other animals were so inspired by her sacrifice that they too began working together to poke multiple holes in the blanket. Soon enough they had a sky full of stars, and there was light again. We acted out this story and as Megan closed her eyes to fly to the top of the sky, Sumedh got down on one knee and popped the question. Megan said, "Yes!" and both of our families came rushing from the sides of the hill to celebrate with us, Cream Sodas in hand!