I was born and raised in Japan. Ever since I can remember, I thought it would be so cool to speak English, so I started studying it. In high school, I studied really hard because I wanted to get into the international major at a top university. But things didn’t go as planned, and I ended up at a university I’d barely even researched.

At that university, my major, international relations, required all sophomore students to study English in the U.S. for five months. I chose San Diego because I could do a homestay there, although I had never heard of San Diego before

In the first month, I mostly spent time with other Japanese students who came with me. I wondered how I could make American friends. Then, I kept seeing someone named Teddy on Instagram through one of the guys I knew. I didn’t know who he was, but I thought it’d be nice to get to know him.

Right before Thanksgiving in 2017, I happened to meet Teddy. After that, I started going over to his house almost every week to join the parties that are hosted at his place.

About a month later, Teddy suddenly got down on one knee, as if he were proposing, and asked me to be his girlfriend. At first, I was like, "What is this guy saying?" I thought we were just friends, so I didn’t take it seriously. But no matter how many times I turned him down, he kept asking.

Eventually, I thought, "Well, I’m going back to Japan in 2-3 months, so why not?" and decided to date him.

From there, things were simple. He treated me like someone really special, always put me first, and kept giving me compliments, telling me how cute I was and beautiful, which I had never been told by anyone. Before I knew it, less than a month into dating, I was saying "I love you."

When I returned to Japan, we started a long-distance relationship. Even though my parents took away my passport, we supported each other and found ways to meet. When Teddy visited Japan in May and November of 2018, my parents wouldn’t let me stay at a hotel with him. I had to lie, saying I was staying at a friend’s house, and video-called my parents from there before secretly going back to the hotel. (My parents still don’t know this, haha.)

At first, I never imagined getting married and moving to the U.S. just for Teddy. But as I saw him work so hard for our future—going back to college while working full-time and getting promotions—I realized he was serious.

If I had gotten into the university I wanted, I would never have met Teddy. That failure I experienced back then might have all been for the purpose of meeting him. That’s why I’ve decided to spend the rest of my life with him, my person of destiny.