We like to say that we just made the cut to call ourselves high school sweethearts, having met junior year and starting our relationship senior year. When we first met, we bonded over our mutual frustrations with Precalculus (and who could blame us, right?). Since then, we brought together two beautiful cultures and religions, learned how to order food in each other’s first languages, experienced the joys of long distance, and finished our educational careers. While we never really became experts in Calculus, we did spark an incredible 9-year journey as best friends and inseparable partners.

The proposal was years in the making. On an unexpectedly frigid fall day in October 2019, Vinod led Yuliana near the same location he asked her to prom in 2013. Under the guise of meeting his extended family for a formal dinner, he took her on a walk through Milton Lee Olive Park. Vinod shared the most believable excuse as to why they were walking around in freezing cold temperatures: his family was running late for dinner. As they walked under the expansive Chicago skyline, with the sun beginning to set behind the iconic spires of the John Hancock building, he held her hand, and told her, “I’ve been waiting for this moment for a very long time.” After a brief struggle with the pocket of his suit jacket, Vinod wrestled out a felt box that marked one of the most important moments of their lives.