I was in Salt Lake City finishing my clinical rotations at the VA hospital and Novak was in his 5th year playing basketball at University of Utah.

On September 15, 2018 my friend and I decided we wanted to go to the University of Utah football tailgate.

We made laps around the parking lot, trying to find some people to include us in their fun. While I was walking down the sidewalk, a REALLY tall man walked past me. I took a few steps in the opposite direction but then had an urge to turn around. He was looking at me and waved me over and we exchanged numbers.

Later that night Novak texted me to go out downtown after the game. Unfortunately I had to work early the next day, so I told him it wouldn't work.

The next day Novak sent me another text asking how work went and if I wanted to go out with him that week. I told him that I wasn't sure about it because I was only in town for two more week and then heading back to Phoenix to finish school. His response was the best. He said, "well then we better hurry up and go on a date if we only have so many days".

Two nights later we went to the movies, and then went on two more dates in my last two weeks in Utah. I remember saying goodbye after our last date. I was feeling sad that I most likely was never going to see Novak again, but also happy because of how nice of a guy he was. We both lived busy lives and the reality was that we had to continue with what we were doing; me finishing my doctorate and him finishing his basketball season/masters degree.

I was just south of the city on my way to Arizona when my phone beeped. I had the nicest message from Novak stating how great is was to get to know me and that we needed to stay in touch.

Over the next year we did just that and continued to grow our relationship into something more than we expected.

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