We met in an elevator. The first of several hundred rides down to the basement where we would spend even more hundred hours together. We stood alone as the doors closed and the low rumbles of an old elevator shaft took over the silence. "Who do people say you remind them of?" Annie broke through. "Sometimes Harry Potter, sometimes Frodo." Matthew fidgeted in his oversized bright yellow blazer. "No, they're wrong. You look like Emilio Estevez - from The Breakfast Club." There was an instant connection. We spent the next two years working together in class honing our skills side by side. We built a friendship while pursuing our passion for performing arts. That friendship strengthened as we found support and comfort in each other.

Our first date was an evening neither of us will ever forget - a double date to the Brooklyn Bazaar. Picture a warehouse taken over by a flea market with room for food trucks and a stage. Don't forget to throw in an air hockey table, 18 holes of mini golf, and a photo booth and you've got yourself Brooklyn Bazaar. We spent the evening looking at handmade crafts and listening to the obscure punk bands. We held hands through the aisles of vendors. We demolished the mini golf course. We laughed over a few rounds of air hockey. We found ourselves in a cramped photo booth. In this photo booth, reveling in the magical evening we'd spent together, we snapped some photos of two young kids too afraid to kiss each other. We would recreate this photo strip in every photo booth we came across for years afterward.

A dark ocean churns below us. The stars shower light upon us from above. We stand at the base of the forty steps - a set of stone steps descending into the ocean from a cliff in Newport. Annie turns to the horizon in the east for a moment - enough time for Matthew to drop to a knee and slip a small box out from his pocket. Alone again, we agree to spend the rest of our lives together. <3<3<3 We gather ourselves and begin the walk back to our lodging. But first, we stop at 7/11 for snacks. We are greeted by Wassim, the clerk covering the late shift. They ask about our night and proceed to orchestrate a photoshoot for our engagement in front of the beverage coolers. They threw some Reese's 'cups' and 'sticks' into our arms and gave us their fervent congratulations. We navigate through the dark streets and dream of our future together.