The moment Jamie and I met we both felt it.

It’s hard to describe exactly what it was but it was the type of feeling you never forget, no matter how much time and space separates you from that moment. A mix of attraction, curiosity, desire. The room was crowded and our eyes kept locking. Interest brewed and smiles lingered throughout the evening.

After that night we hoped more than anything that our paths would cross again. Fortunately, they did. Before we knew it, we were spending as much time together as possible, slowly but surely learning how it feels to fall for someone. I was a junior at the University of Delaware. She was a senior. It was the fall of 2017.

An entire novel could be written about what transpired over the course of the next two years. For time’s sake, I’m going to boil it down to a few words: connection, passion, enchantment, honesty, pain, heartbreak, addiction, recovery, healing, and - most importantly - second chances.

I’ve never believed in soulmates but it’s impossible to think about our journey and not reconsider the idea. There were a million reasons why we should have gone our separate ways - not in an ugly way, but in a betterment-of-each-other-as-individuals way. I was freshly sober trying to rebuild my life. Jamie was a hundred miles away in New York City starting her nursing career. To be even more transparent, we actually did try to go our separate ways. We tried to move on. But it didn't happen. It couldn’t happen. Neither of us were able to. We were completely and utterly drawn to each other with a power neither of us had ever before experienced in our lives.

And then, we fell in love properly.

2020 and 2021 were spent building a future together. I was teaching in Philadelphia and she was working at a pediatric ICU in Queens. The plan was that we would get engaged in the spring of 2023 and that I would move to the city after the school year ended, when my TFA teaching commitment was complete. But I quickly realized I couldn’t wait that long. It had to happen sooner. I had never been more certain of anything in my life.

I wrote this in my journal and then a week later got on my knee and asked if she wanted to spend the rest of her life with me.

"You've awakened inside of me a feeling I never knew existed.

A happiness I didn't know was possible to hold.

Where the depths of my heart sat dark you brought fire.

And where the pieces of my soul laid broken you have healed.

You are my morning light.

You are my shelter.

You are my home.

No man deserves to be this lucky.

Forever will never be long enough to grow with you.

And it will certainly never be long enough to love you.

But it's a great place to start."

She said yes and four months later I packed my bags for New York City. We ate takeout on the floor the night we first moved in together. No couch, no table, no chairs. Just a kitchen full of boxes and her and I, telling stories of longing that led to that very moment. It was beautiful. Finally, after the ups and the downs, the train tickets and crossing of state lines, the long-distance love and overwhelming growth of fondness in our hearts, we shared a roof. Even more beautiful, though, was how quickly we came to see that our home had been built long before we ever even shared that roof.

We’ve been together in Astoria for over a year now. I could write pages upon pages about how it’s been but, instead, I will end with this.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again because I truly do mean it. Jamie has made me completely redefine what love is. She’s taught me the true meaning of vulnerability and shown me how it feels for two individuals to become one.

She’s the most incredible person I know and I can’t wait to call her my wife.

We’ll see you on the 29th.