Swipe right. Ding. Anna, you got matched with Brendo Akimitsu. Tick tock, tick, tock. A week later and Anna finally got a message from Brendo Akimitsu on the dating app. Their story is a modern love story.

It was an April Thursday non-date kind of night when Anna and Brendo met each other at a San Diego brewery. Heart pumping, sweaty palms, and curiosity filled Anna's mind of whether this first time meet up with someone online was a good idea. Anna, in a black dress and loose black and white pattern cardigan, waited in front of the bar to meet Brendo for the first time. Unexpectedly, Brendo walked up in his shoulder length brown wavy hair, tie dyed shirt, khaki pants, black vans and a happy face backpack approached Anna. Who is this hippy dippy San Diegan?

This story is not a love at first sight kind of story. In fact, when the two of them went home to talk with their friends about their first meet up, Anna texted one of her high school friends that Brendo would be a friend that she would call to play sports with. While Brendo told one of his fraternity brothers that he thinks the first meet up went okay.

Maybe it was Brendo's sincerity, maybe it was Anna's charm, but something sparked the second date and so it began. They went hiking together, shared about their day, and met each other's friends and families. Everything felt easy until 4 months later, their puppy love phase was cut short when Anna decided to go to Beijing. Anna was gone for what was supposed to be one year to two years. It takes two to tango and they both tangoed for each other. It didn't matter that there was a 16 hour time difference. Brendo got up extremely early while Anna stayed up extremely late so they could Skype to hear about each other's days and to support each other. The two years of counting down the days was not a breeze, but they were committed.

Their love for each other was tested once again. Anna and Brendo went from a 2 year long distance relationship to immediately moving in with each other. Brendo and Anna's next adventure was in Berkeley, CA. Were they ready to live in a new city after being away from each other for two years? Did they really know each other enough to make it work? Would they be able to stand each other quirks and still love each other unconditionally? Real life hits hard-school stress, new job stress, finance stress, new city stress all added up to adulting stressors. Though they found the comfort of doing the mundane things together- grocery shopping, cooking, and walking after dinner.

After their two years adventure in Berkley, they are finally back to where they first met- San Diego. They recreated the short lived puppy love. Anna and Brendo visited places where they hiked, ate and laughed when they first met. They build a home together and even got a furry baby! After a year, Brendo found it fitting to orchestrate a proposal scavenger hunt with family and friends' support to asked Anna to marry him. She said, "I'll think about it."

Til this day, Brendo still has that infamous tie dye shirt and Anna now has a companion to play sports with... for life. Their story is a modern love story.

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