Soup snake (def.): what Emma and I are. Never in my life would I have thought that I would meet my soulmate halfway across the world, thousands of miles away from home, and on Tinder of all things. On the 1st of June of the year 2018, we matched and I casually opened up with something along the lines of, "Your smile is beautiful", or some cringe-y variation of the phrase. Off the bat, Emma and I shared many common interests like our love for Marvel and astute musical abilities. Every day, I learned more about her and every day I fell harder and harder for her. But it wasn't until we met in person, after nearly three and a half months of lovey-dovey texting, did I truly fall in love with the woman I am going to call my wife. On the 9th of September of that same year, Emma and I first gazed into each others eyes in person at the Dubai Mall. Hiding behind a massive column was Emma. With my BFF Briant lurking behind me, recording every second, I approached her and we gave each other the biggest embrace ever. We spent the day together walking through the mall, shopping for trinkets for my moms, gazing up at the Burj Khalifa, driving to the Ja Jebel Ali Beach Hotel, and sitting on the sands of the beach enjoying every second of us being together. From the moment I met her, I knew we were soup snakes, a couple destined to be wedded, two metals fused by a hot torch. The woman from the dunes, my future wife Emma. It was, and forever will be, a deployment to remember. -Jason