“How we met”

I packed up my life and hopped on a plane to Seattle, WA to start my four-year pharmacy school journey. I was in a new city, new school, and meeting new people. The first week of school was all about orientation and social gatherings, which was quite exhausting for an introvert like myself. My good friend, Cindy Kang, was hosting a Korean BBQ night on her rooftop lounge. As we waited for people to gather, I was helping to prep dinner when I heard a knock on the door. On the other side of the door stood two Asian guys, one with a derpy smile who I later got to know was John Dang (we would become close friends), and the other was quiet, mysterious and nerdy dude. Little did I know, that this dude would be my best friend in pharmacy school.

I went into pharmacy school with the mindset that I wouldn’t date anyone in my class but life had other plans. We had met at a Korean BBQ gathering at our mutual friend’s rooftop and hit things off from there. We became good friends through the first few months of our first year in school, bonding over our mutual love for R&B, Korean dramas, and of course Jay Park. It was later in the year after one sunny day that we had spent together in Fremont that I had realized that I had wanted more than just friendship. I had to wait months and months for the right opportunity to express how I felt, and when I did, it made all the waiting worthwhile.

"The Dating Game"

We have been together for 5 years now. Each year bas been better than the last. We suffered through midterms and finals, quarantined during COVID, survived the mountain, graduated pharmacy school, traveled, and endured long-distance together, all while keeping ourselves and each other happy. It's only fitting to think of it as the dating game when Andy is a gamer himself who especially enjoys the strategic type games. Let's just say, this man had no strategy to win me over other than "being there" for me. I guess you can say that his plan worked?

"The Proposal"

I took a short break after PGY1 year and we planned a trip to LA and SB. We wanted to enjoy the delicious comfort food, relax and pamper ourselves, and sight-see. I'm very much a planner so naturally, I created an itinerary and researched different restaurants and activities while Andy goes with the flow. It wasn't until our last night in Santa Barbara did he start mentioning his surprises. After a delicious meal at Loquita (delicious restaurant btw!) and some ice cream from McConnell's, we strolled down State Street to the Pier. I mentioned to Andy that I wished we had extended our trip another night in Santa Barbara because I missed my old stomping grounds and had forgotten how beautiful the place was. Before the end of the night, he surprised me with a plan for an intimate photoshoot along the beach before we headed back to Sacramento (at this point, I started to be suspicious). The next morning, we got ready and headed to the beach. I thought all was going well until Andy started to panic when he had learned his plan was derailed when the picnic vendor set up at the rose garden instead of the beach. Our photographer, Trevor (awesome dude), hurried to the rose garden and tried to be discreet in hiding since he no longer had the element of surprise in his favor. At this point, Andy was a nervous wreck and completely ignoring my questions as I could tell he was focused on one thing: proposing to me. When we arrived, he walked me towards the middle of the rose garden and there was one lonesome umbrella with a beautiful picnic set up underneath. He popped the question and surprise! I said yes.

"The Proposal"

The original plan was to propose during a picnic on beautiful East Beach in Santa Barbara, but unfortunately, things did not end up going to plan. On our “last” night in Santa Barbara I had told Heidi that I had a surprise waiting for us the following day. I told her, I had hired a photographer to capture a few more precious moments at the tail end of this week-long trip in southern California. I’m sure at this point she had suspicions on what was coming. The next morning, we got ready for our photoshoot, and packed our bags to go meet our photographer at East Beach. On our way there, we stopped by a gas station to fill up our car so we could head straight home to Sacramento. Upon checking my phone I noticed several missed calls, and text messages from numbers I didn't know. The text message read, “...there was some miscommunication and we accidently set up at the mission rose garden for 12-2…”. My heart sank and panic came over me. I hastily called our photographer, and told him to meet us at the Rose Garden. I told Heidi that there was a change of plans and that we would be heading to a rose garden for our photoshoot. As I slowly drove from the gas station to the rose garden she would ask, “why did we have to change locations?” to which I had no answer; I was just in full panic. When we arrived at the garden, the picnic was set up and I spotted our photographer waiting incognito for us to arrive. We got out of the car, I walked her over to the picnic, I sat her down, got on one knee, and I asked her to marry me. Despite all the chaos of the morning, everything worked out and she said yes.

We are excited to start this new chapter of our lives together!