We’re getting married!

Valeda and I actually met on her very first day of med school orientation. I was one of the upperclassmen who volunteered to help guide the new students as they went to an Indians baseball game, and I was lucky enough to end up sitting just a row back from Valeda. My first memory of Valeda is her peppering me with countless questions about the med school, but what stuck with me from that encounter was that she had a huge smile on her face the whole time, and was incredibly friendly towards everyone she had met. After the game, we went as part of a group to a local bar, and we really hit it off. As we kept talking over the next few days, I found myself trying to work up the nerve to ask her out. Finally, one of our mutual friends outright told me "You know, I think Valeda really likes you (hint hint hint!)." A day later, Valeda mentioned (totally casually) that she was interested in going to see the new Ant-Man movie. I finally got the hint, and asked her if she wanted to go see it together. The rest, as they say, is history.

When we arrived in New Zealand, I had the ring burning a hole in my pocket, but no real plan for how to go about actually proposing. My thought was: wait for a beautiful location and a moment that works, and go for it. After three days, we arrived in Abel Tasman National Park, on the northern edge of the South Island. As soon as we drove in, I knew the location was perfect: there was a long stretch of beach, with a gorgeous mountain backdrop. Now that I had a location, I had to make a plan. After a long day of hiking, the plan was to go on an after-dinner beach walk. We then fell asleep at 8 PM and slept for 12 hours. But the next day, we were better rested and this time, we did manage the sunset beach walk. As we arrived at the isolated stretch of beach, I worried for our privacy, since I saw another girl walking along the same stretch of beach I had in mind for the proposal. However, just as we arrived this girl was attacked by ground-nesting birds, driving her off and giving us the privacy I was hoping for. I don't really remember much of the next part. I remember telling Valeda all about how much I love her, and I remember almost slipping as I went down on one knee. Next thing I knew, Valeda had a ring on her finger and we were taking pictures with the sunset over the ocean.

Oddly enough, the moment I really started thinking "this girl here is special" was when Valeda took the lead on planning our trip to Niagara Falls; she made a point of scheduling the trip to coincide with a weekend where my favorite football team (Stanford, duh) wasn't playing. This was a special moment for me, because in previous relationships I always felt as though I had to hide my passion for football or my love of video games and fantasy novels, for fear of being judged. Valeda’s willingness to work around my quirks in order to allow us to both enjoy the trip really set the tone for the relationship, and sent me a signal that I could be my entire self, without reservations.

The first pivotal moment was only ~2 months into our relationship, when he found out my birthday fell on a weekend he had originally planned a trip to DC with some of his best friends. I did not expect him to change his plans, especially since that would involve making two other people adjust their own schedules as well. To my surprise, he asked his friends if they could do their trip the next weekend. On my birthday, he cooked me dinner (pasta, of course) and gave me a fancy cheese grater as a gift. As many people know, the key to my heart is pasta and cheese. After dinner, he told me to close my eyes and he surprised me with a German chocolate cake covered in walnuts, forgetting that I was allergic to nuts. Even though I couldn’t really eat it, it was so cute how excited he was to give me this cake and was adorably devastated after remembering I was allergic. Since then, Scott has attempted many romantic gestures, often with a glitch in the execution. I think these glitches make him more lovable because he really tries but is not perfect, which I love (although I’m sure he wishes he was).