It was the summer of 2022 when Danyell and I matched on a dating website. When I got the notification, I was over the moon. I remember reading her profile and feeling so grateful to see someone I was actually excited to match with. I remember her profile saying that she had a sense of humor that was in between Larry David and Megan Thee Stallion, and I recall thinking this is someone who doesn’t take themselves too seriously. Which is the kind of energy I needed in my life. We messaged for a while before I asked her for her phone number. After which point I asked her out on a date. She agreed. I thought to myself “this is going well”. So a couple of days before we were scheduled to meet, I asked if we could meet on a rainy school night. She obliged, and from the moment she approached me at the bar, I felt pretty sure she wasn’t going to make a run for it. That same weekend we were supposed to meet, I asked to accompany her as she ran errands. I hadn’t felt like this before and wanted to make sure it was real. It was, and still is today. We would make one another laugh regularly. I’m talking about that laugh from the gut. But not only that, we talked about our pasts, challenges, and what we wanted in the future. She struck me as someone who knew what she wanted, and was not afraid to speak up on it. She expressed empathy, compassion, and understanding for myself, her family, and everyone she came in contact with. I knew I wanted to marry her when I told her of the many challenges I was encountering at the time and she still stuck around. She showed faith in me and was an encouraging partner from those days where nothing was certain, to this present day. October 2024, I pondered on the many ways to propose to Danyell. Ring in my possession, and hope in my heart that I would make this day memorable. Exhilaration would eat me alive as I would try to envision the perfect day and how I would make it happen. Once November passed, I realized that there may not be a perfect day. Our relationship didn’t start when the world was rainbows and sunshine. We met on an overcast evening ending in rain. The light from our relationship shone through those droplets to make our own rainbows as we would wait for the sun to rise. We conjured that light. Us. That is all I needed to remember. With that in mind. I asked her out on a date to National Harbor. This would be our last date as “boyfriend/girlfriend”. I shoved the bulky ring box into my sock as we walked to the convention center, had a few drinks, and dined on duck and lamb. She stepped away for a moment, giving me enough time to pry the box from being embedded in my ankle. When she came back, I said a few words emphasizing how incredible it is that we found one another, how well we match, and how grateful I feel that we are together. In closing, I told her I was tired of being her “boyfriend”, paused for dramatic effect, and dropped to one knee and finally asked her. I think she said yes. Pretty cool. Pret-ty, pret-ty cool.

I met Edmund on a dating app during the hot summer of 2022 in Bethesda, MD. Despite living only two miles apart, our paths never crossed. Initially, I misjudged him for a gym bro, but something told me to dig a little deeper. I was intrigued at what I found: a fun-loving healthcare Navy vet in Kente cloth mask unafraid to act a fool. He had an amazing smile, beautiful brown eyes and wasn’t asking for follows or likes. I swiped right, and to my pleasant surprise, we matched immediately. It took Ed a few days to message first (“Happy Juneteenth!”) but it was worth the wait. We had excellent banter, shared a “no games” approach dating, and immediately bonded over our mutual love of animals and movies. We quickly made plans to meet Friday, but less than 24 hours after exchanging numbers, Ed convinced me to go out two days earlier. I walked into the crowded restaurant, scanned the tables, and spotted him sitting at the bar with his back to the door – recreating the "meet-cute" he'd described to me the night before. I smiled at his impressed by his commitment to making me laugh. We laughed and smiled the entire night. Being with Ed let me be silly, lower my guard and have fun. Even the rain couldn’t kill the vibe. I still remember the electric moment we touched hands and how we stayed long after happy hour ended. On our originally scheduled date, we saw my favorite movie, and the very next day Ed called me to ask if I wanted company while running errands. A few weeks later, Ed asked if I was looking for a boyfriend. From that moment on, we were inseparable. Edmund proposed to me in April after a very romantic meal at National Harbor. It started like any other Saturday until he said, “I want to take you to lunch today” – we never do weekend lunches. It seemed a little odd but after three years I’ve learned to let him cook. My spouse knows me well because there was misdirection at every turn: we parked far away from our destination, hiked to a place I’d never been before, and started with cocktails instead of lunch. In hindsight, Ed did disappear a few times to “talk to” people but the lobby bar vibes (and drinks) were too good worry about anything else. Our table overlooked the expansive garden atrium and we enjoyed a mouth-watering spread of crab cakes, lambchops, strip steak, lobster tail and decadent chocolate cake. Once we were full, Ed started talking about our relationship. The next thing I knew, he was staring into my eyes, saying, “I’m tired of being your boyfriend” and getting down on down one knee. It was the easiest “yes” of my life. The rest is history!