Lauren & Vikramjit
Lauren & Vikramjit
Our Story
What Were the Odds?
So it begins...
When I look back on how we actually met, and I think about the statistics of our love story, it boggles my mind. Let's rewind back to COVID times y'all... I know, no one wants to remember that! But bear with me for a bit.
I (Lauren, in case anyone thought that Vikram was writing this story.) flew back to the U.S. after four years of residence in South Korea, excited to be home and have my family around me again. I didn't really know what my plan was, but I was looking forward to being in the States and doing all the American stuff I could!
At the same time, Vikram was living his life in Germantown, working at Fedex and starting to understand the American culture. He had been in the U.S. for four years- the exact length of time that I had been gone.
I boarded a plane with my two cats and all my worldly possessions, and came home. Remember, this was during the 'VID, so in an effort to keep my family safe I drove from the airport to Pickwick Lake for a two week quarantine. While I sat there, bored out of my mind, needing some kind of entertainment, I opened up my dating app.
We can fast forward a bit from there. It was two weeks of constant messaging, and then one fateful day we met for lunch. I guess I knew that I was never going to let him escape when we spent 12 hours together that first day. He was doomed.
Alaska Take the Wheel
We had a lot in common, and not just that we were both ridiculously good looking. We both knew the feeling of being a stranger in a foreign land, the ache of loneliness during holidays and family celebrations, and that knowing feeling that you didn't quite fit in. We grew close very quickly, and after less than 2 months of meeting we boarded a plane to Alaska for our first adventure together. There, stuck in a 20 ft. RV for ten days, we fell in love amidst the glaciers, mountains, and the endless daytime horizon.
Vikram's openness to do new things, his kindness, and his passion for life were infectious. And it wasn't long before we were spending almost every day together. In August of 2021, we drove to South Carolina to pick up the fluff ball that changed it all... Bagheera had been born!
Through thick and thin, we stuck it out, and it was not always easy! We struggled with culture clashes quite a lot in those early days, but Vikram had put so much work into learning about me and how I think. I had no choice but to follow suit and start to work on understanding the Indian culture and what being Punjabi meant to him! I'm so glad that I started to put in the effort, because then I was able to love so many more parts of him. I had found my twin flame, the man that loved me more than anything and did his best to take care of me. With time, parts of me that had hardened over the years began to melt away and I could see a future together.
In April of 2022, almost a year to the day that we first met, we bought our RV- The Taj MaHaul. You think you know a person? Try guiding them to back up 25 feet of stress into a wooded parking spot in the middle of the pitch black night with no cell service. You will then very much know that person!
From there the story basically tells itself. We figured out that we were irrevocably tied together in this beautiful dance that we call life. He fell in love with my family and they with him. I started learning Punjabi and I do my best to meld our two worlds- however far apart though they may be. We grew from having a few pets to SIX! And then we bought our dream home together. Just down the road from my family, so we can raise our children in the same place that I spent my perfect childhood.
Our Happily Ever After at the Lake
If someone were to tell me, just over two and a half years ago, as I boarded that plane to restart my life yet again, that in a few days I would be talking to my future husband... Well, let's just say I would not have made a very ladylike sound! But if you ever want to make God laugh just tell him about your plans.
I am so grateful for that day on the Tennessee River that we swiped right on each other. And I'm even more grateful that in May I get to say "I do" in that very same place. From that first greeting, to our countless family trips to the lake house, to our union. What a magical destination it is for us! I hope that you are able to be there and celebrate love and fate with us in the place where it all began...
I'll finish with one of my favorite quotes from a movie that Vikram introduced me to, Captain Fantastic. At the burial of his wife, leaning over her body, the main character tells her:
"My face is mine, my hands are mine, my mouth is mine, but I'm not.
I'm yours."
Forever more, that is what I'll be saying to my love, I'm yours.