In January 2017, Shama and Bryce were living very separate lives. Shama, four years removed from her UC Berkeley graduation, was living in the Bay Area and working at Cisco. Bryce, living as a part-time graduate student in Orange County, was busy flying around the country working in consulting. They briefly met - like a smile and a wave type - at a weekend birthday gathering for a mutual friend, Priyam Das. They said their goodbyes that weekend and, for the next 12 months, all they had were frequent updates on the other's life from Priyam. To their great fortune, Priyam celebrated her birthday again the following year, January 2018. By this time, Bryce had finished graduate school and moved back to Sacramento. After spending time together at Priyam's birthday party, they both knew they wanted to get to know each other more. A week later, Bryce drove all the way to the Bay Area on a weekday to take Shama on their first date. They quickly bonded over specialty coffee, Latin music, fitness, and their competitive natures. The rest was history.

Fast forward to winter of 2020. Bryce had been building up to this "partnership between UC Berkeley and Sutter Health" for the last couple of months (no, it didn't really exist). He wrote a full narrative on the "partnership" and asked for Shama's feedback on it. He even researched open real estate in the Berkeley area and asked for Shama's input on the best locations. The first week of December, he asked Shama if she could come with him for a site tour of these real estate locations. Upon arriving in Berkeley, and after a small coffee detour thanks to Shama, Bryce suggested they check out the Campanille (the clock tower on the UC Berkeley campus) before their appointment with a real estate agent (who also did not exist). Once they arrive in front of the Campanille, Bryce revealed there was no site tour, got down on one knee, and asked Shama to be his wife.

The past three years have been filled with many smiles, laughs, vacations, and SoulCycle classes. Our love story continues to grow and evolve, and we are so happy to take this next step together. This, of course, is only the very beginning of our journey. We have so much to learn and feel fortunate to have two sets of wonderful role models (Mayuri and Mahesh - 33 years married; Betsy and Mark - 34 years married). Our love story will take the next step on December 27, 2021, where we will share an anniversary date with Betsy and Mark (Bryce's parents).