It all started the year of 2017. I was a young college graduate embarking on my own for the first time in my life; I had these great ambitions of traveling, finding new hobbies, and breezing my way through optometry school. Your mother was a native Oregonian, not ranging far from her roots. She had attended Pacific University the 4 years prior as an undergraduate and was now beginning the next 4 years in a building just across campus as a first year optometry student. Now, in a class of 90 students it does take time to get to know all of your classmates. But between lecture, labs, study groups, and the required Friday night brewery trips one would think within a few months that everyone would meet each other. And that did happen. Lily and I met in October of 2017 at a volunteer event, except Lily does not remember this meeting…at all. Yikes. So I don’t think we can count that. Fast forward a few months to the beginning of 2018. I decided to take it upon myself to branch out and socialize with those in my class that I had not connected with much. There was a lab assignment which required working with different classmates and I saw this as an opportunity to reconnect with Lily. Come to find out she had no idea who I was, but she agreed to work with me anyhow (she now knows I'm not someone to branch out). I like to think I made quite the impression on her that day, but a few months later when I asked her out on a date, she said no. Well, she agreed but said it wasn’t a date. So, brunch…as friends? Yes. We met at Maridon’s Cafe and spent a few hours getting to know one another. It wasn’t until a few months later that she realized I actually liked her when I stayed in Oregon a month after the semester ended just so I could be there for her birthday. Eventually, she got the hint. Even more so when I returned to Oregon a month before the semester restarted to spend more time with her. I wouldn’t trade those early days for the world. A slow burn is probably an understatement, but good things take time. And Lily is the best.