It was a beautiful day in January 2022 when fate brought Susheel Kanakamedala and Valeria Gomez together after briefly talking online. They began getting to know one another, exchanging conversations about places they visited, their educational journey, family, and most importantly their cultures/backgrounds. Valeria is Hispanic and Susheel is Indian, so there was plenty of exciting, knowledgeable, and interesting conversations about the diversity within both cultures to talk about. What was supposed to be a week of training in Corona for Susheel turned into a first date, nonstop getting to know one another, happy hours, movie dates, sporadic text messaging throughout the days/week, FaceTime dates and what was the start to an incredibly long distance journey. Susheel went back home to Fremont California seven hours away, but the communication never stopped. After multiple flights to and from Fremont and Corona, it was safe to say that all our traveling ignited feelings for one another rather quickly. Traveling to and from formed so many wonderful memories and here are some of their favorites. • Taking a drive up Mount Hamilton and visiting Lick Observatory • Dancing/singing our hearts out to Telugu/Spanish songs in the club • Attending our groomsman's wedding in Minneapolis • Eating Biryani, Dosa, or Haleem at our favorite restaurant in Artesia • Visiting our friends up north and having Pani Puri at Paradise (Val's Favorite) • Bowling with family and friends at Bowlero /bowling Alley (Sueheel's Favorite) • Attending a San Francisco Giants Baseball Game and spending time downtown • Meeting each other's family/friends The list goes on and on and it was safe to say that they both hit it off right away, but Susheel still lived in the Bay causing a long distance between the couple. However, fate had other plans as time passed, the moment came to introduce one another to our family and friends. The diversity between both cultures and acceptance from both sides of the family was the best feeling we could have experienced. After stealing each other's hearts, Susheel moved to Corona in October of 2022 to be closer to Val and their love for each other continues to grow every day.

December 26th, which was a day intended to go sightseeing, turned into an incredible day for Valeria and Susheel. As Val was already dressed up for the day. Susheel kept wondering to himself how he was going to get Val to change outfits. He approached her and expressed how he wanted to go to dinner and asked her to put on a dress. Val quickly changed and carried on with the day. During this time sunset was quickly approaching. Susheel and his brother Sujay were driving around town and Val was cool, calm, and collected in the back seat. After stopping at a store and driving some more Susheel pulled over to the side of the road, where Val got out of the car and was immediately blindfolded. At this point, Val had no idea what was going on and felt so many mixed emotions about being blindfolded. Susheel began to drive the car for a few more minutes and stopped the vehicle. Val was helped out of the vehicle and waited for Susheel’s cue. The next ten minutes would be exhilarating for Val. Val continued to place all her trust in Susheel as he guided her "blindfolded", to the desired spot located at Vista Point in Costa Mesa, CA. It came time to remove the blindfold and to Val's surprise found Susheel down on one knee asking to marry her, surrounded by their immediate family and friends. As tears of happiness rolled down her face she screamed, shouted "YES," and we were engaged! We're so excited to celebrate this next chapter in our lives with you. See you in Placentia at the Women's Round Table Club!