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December 18, 2022
Indian Wells, CA

Veronica & Pavel

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Pavel

Shebalkin

and

Veronica

Rafla

December 18, 2022

Indian Wells, CA

How we met

From Pavel's Perspective

We all thought it all started when Veronica passed Pavel on the second floor hallway of SpaceX coming from the mezzanine. Veronica’s eyes were fixated on Pavel’s eyes, almost like cupid shooting an arrow to find love. No one at this point knew that that was the start. Well at least, that's how I thought it happened, but turns out she had no idea who I was! Nonetheless, our paths crossed again and she agreed to go on a date! We settled to meet at Ortega 120 for happy hour on January 21, 2020. In typical fashion, V was late but she finally arrived wearing black jeans and a leather jacket stating she needed a margarita. That is when I knew she was someone special. As typical on first dates, you try to put yourself in perspective to the other person to see what things you have in common or who stands out. That's when I knew I was in trouble. I was sitting next to a Doctor in Material Science from UVA, a multi marathoner (training for her first Ironman), and someone who wakes up at 5 am (on sleep-in days). I was speechless, impressed and wanted to spend many more days getting to know her. Turns out the first date went well enough that we went on a few other dates. A few days after she turned 29, Veronica was ready to put my life and the relationship to the test. She wanted to see if I could wake up early and hike to summit Mt. Baldy. Her friends didn't think I could do it, heck, my friends didn't think I could do it. And as many of you readers can assume, everything went flawlessly :).

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