I always said that I would never meet anyone at Anime Expo... until I did. We found each other at the same gathering we had both attended for two years and, in 2010, finally hung out with each other. It was great fun, but then the convention was over and I'd never see her again. Or so I thought, because we kept running into each other over the next five years! It wasn't until we started hanging out in earnest five years ago that it became apparent that there was something there. We strolled down halls of art and danced in city starlight, howling at the moon as we did... but it wasn't until "The Wingman" intervened that I found the courage to ask her out on our first date... and the story of that lovely trainwreck is one best told another day. Over the next five years, as I navigated this new stage of my life, I found myself learning the simple joys of living life true to one's self and the importance of taking the risk to follow the path my dreams had set before me. She showed me love in supporting me through some of my life's toughest trials and I came to realize that the one I had hoped to meet since I was a boy was staring me right in the face. While it took entirely too long to some... ...okay, most... I eventually found the courage to risk the biggest question of my life in asking her to stay with me for the rest of our days... and I think we all know how that turned one out. Now, I'm left to wonder... with someone as good and vivacious as Holly as my partner, what will I find the courage to do next...?

I always figured that as introverted as I am it would be almost impossible for me to meet someone at any convention, let alone one as big as Anime Expo. Somehow it happened anyway. After attending the same gathering for two or three years in a row I suddenly found myself hanging out with him after the gathering was over. And it was fun! I got to have a new friend for the day, but when the day ended it that would be it, I’d never see him again. Or so I thought. We kept running into each other at different conventions, at least once a year, for the next several years. Somewhere along the line we became Facebook friends. Then one fateful year he came to my Birthday party. We re-connected. I thought he asked me out long before he thought he did. It was amazing. Over the next 5 years we grew and learned and laughed and argued (mostly about Star Wars) and somehow became inseparable. I knew I had found the one. And then he asked. And then I said yes. And with someone as amazing and caring as Nathan as my partner, I know that whatever comes next will be fantastic!