I grew up in the Santa Monica, California area from the ages of 2yo to 9yo. That was my home for seven years, but eventually I had to leave. After moving to Texas for my parents’ job reasons, I never thought of moving back to California.

Fast forward 20 years, I was in my third year of psychiatry residency in Tyler, Texas. I had one personal goal that eluded me: finding a loving partner to share my life with. I was a real mess after putting off dating for 4 years. To get over this, I forced myself into dating apps for a yearlong stint that was both enjoyable and disastrous. The experience left me burned out, and I dishearteningly vowed at the end of all of that: "Never again. I'm fine with being alone now!" Funnily enough, that's when things changed for the better.

After that experience, I focused all my efforts on becoming an effective therapist. I joined the online therapy training group headed by Dr. David Burns in California. After two meetings, I ended up in a breakout group with Chan Mary who was at the time a Registered Nurse. My first thought when I saw her was, "Wow, she's a cute therapist!" Our small group leader luckily paired us up.

A couple days after the group ended, she emailed thanking me for my help. I responded semi-jokingly offering to be her practice partner “anytime”. Our emails turned into phone texts which turned into phone calls before eventually evolving to zoom calls. We talked with each other about our lives, what we wanted, and how we got to where we were. Obviously, neither of us expected anything romantic to happen because I was in Texas, and she was in California. So of course, we grew only closer and closer!

Chan Mary eventually asked me to come with her to Hawaii for a 1-week trip, and the rest is history! We fell madly in love with each other and started dating officially after the Hawaii trip. Ten months of long-distance dating later, I took a road trip with Chan Mary from Texas to California, and now I don't ever want to leave. It's been a very unexpected journey for me, and as cliche as it sounds, our stories tend to loop back on where we started. I'm currently back in California, but this time with the love of my life. We are both excited for the next chapter of our life to begin. I hope to see you all at our wedding! Thanks for reading.

It certainly has been quite a journey since meeting Cai. Before meeting Cai, I had given up on finding my life partner. I had constructed a plan where I would go back to school, get my Nurse Practitioner degree, and then move back to Long Beach, where I would find a donor and raise my child with the help of my family. Very few friends knew of this plan.

A wise friend reminded me that everyone has their own path, within their own timeline, traveling through their life’s journey. Painful as it was, I resigned myself to accepting that it simply was not the right time.

In the pursuit of entering the field of Psychiatry, I joined Dr. David Burn’s weekly therapy group to learn Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. One unsuspecting evening, in a breakout group led by Sunny, I was partnered with Cai to role-play a therapy technique. The first thing I noticed about Cai was that he was impressionable in his unconventional and fervent disposition. In fact, he was a bit outlandish. He intrigued me because he was so unabashedly himself.

Since meeting Cai, he has inspired me to be bold and courageous. Thus, for the first time in my life, I reached out to an unknown stranger by email. He responded enthusiastically. Our emails evolved to text messages, to phone calls, to Zoom conversations. Then, I did the boldest thing I have ever done in my life and invited Cai to meet me at the Big Island in Hawaii. It would be our first in-person meeting.

Both of our anxiety got in the way at the beginning of our relationship. Cai, when he initially rejected my offer to go to Hawaii. And me, when I insisted that we should stay friends after meeting in person in Hawaii. I am thankful that, in the end, we took the courageous route to choose love. To choose vulnerability. And ultimately, to choose each other. In Hawaii, Cai told me, that when he thinks of us, he imagines that we are traveling in a Jeep together, heading into the sunset. Our destination is uncertain, but we continue to travel together. I am thankful that we both chose to stay on this ride, traveling through this journey called life. The destination remains uncertain, and hundreds to thousands of miles remain untraveled. However, we are excited to make a stop in our journey at the exit called Wedding, and we would be so ecstatic if you could meet us there.