How We Met

It happened one night in Nashville, and the rest is history... but we will come back to that. The years before and the coincidences leading up to meeting would make even the hardest of hearts believe in fate. From living in San Diego and Dallas, to Houston and New York, from happenstance mutual connections and drastic career changes, distance and time were no barrier to finding each other. Years before meeting, through friends of friends and mutual friends, we had each heard about each other on various occasions. It was even suggested by Ashlan's oldest friend Heather (who knew Ash would settle for no less than Mr. Darcy) that "this Jon guy who lives in San Diego" would be a perfect fit for her. However, because of distance, her suggestion was dismissed with a laugh. It was when Jon moved from San Diego to New York that our names came up to each other again, because Jon had started working at KPMG. Despite both working in the Healthcare industry, KPMG is a very large place. Not only was Jon a part of the New York office, but Ashlan worked in the Dallas office, and was part of a completely different consulting practice. The odds were that despite knowing mutual people, our paths would never cross.

At this point in her career, Ashlan needed a drastic change. It wasn't until she happened to be placed on a two week project with a random girl named Jess from the Cleveland office that this change was initiated. Finding an instant friend (or more forcing her friendship upon this girl), they remained close over the next year. After working together, Jess transitioned into a very small niche group within KPMG, telling Ashlan how the work was exactly what she was looking for in her career and that she should make the change as well. It was at this point (and after lots of sales pitches on Houston from the lovely Desiree Lynch) that Ashlan made the decision to leave Dallas and internal audit to join her friends in an adventurous move to Houston and the Revenue Cycle practice.

Over the past years, Ashlan had heard countless stories from Jess about her two good friends in the practice, Trupti and Jon. When Ashlan started her first project in her new job, she finally met the infamous Trupti. To say the least, they instantly bonded over their love of working out, puppies, coffee, and running the show at work. When Trupti and Jess always mentioned their friend Jon, Ashlan finally connected the dots and realized this is the same Jon she had heard about multiple times, from multiple unconnected friends, over multiple years. To be fair, Jon is a very common name. Now, curiosity was getting the best of her and she knew she had to meet this person.

Now back to the fateful night in Nashville. Everyone in the practice was attending a specialized training, and Ashlan, Jess and Trupti had gone early to make the most of Uncle Peat's free travel. J + T were texting Jon the whole weekend, telling him about our adventures in Nashville, including in the background their friend Ashlan, this girl he had never even met. Enough was enough. At the social gathering the first night of the training, Ashlan strode right up to Jon in typical Ashlan fashion with a simple "So are we going to talk about this?" We instantly laughed heartily about how small a world it is, and how crazy life can be sometimes. Little did we know. There were multiple influences in our lives pushing us closer and closer together. Even Ashlan's boss Kim, during a general conversation about relationships, pointed to Jon and said "he is the kind of man you marry". Needless to say, after finally meeting each other, we had an instant connection. (This connection was probably cemented for Jon as true love when Ashlan "borrowed" some solo cups and a few beers from the bar, looked him deeply in the eyes, and challenged "flip cup"?Records of who actually won this challenge have been lost, the winner is still up for debate.)

Throughout the training, we had many adventures. Whether it was going on a quest to find Trupti, convincing our Uber driver take us to Taco Bell, or playing cards in the hotel lobby and finishing each other's sentences, we knew we had to keep in touch after training was over. Despite all of the signs and influences, the fact was that Jon lived in New York and Ashlan lived in Houston, and we didn't think we could be more than friends. When Jon happened to be placed onto the same project in North Carolina not a week later, that friendship quickly grew to love. Now, the adventure begins!

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