Set the scene: It was my second year of grad school, I was sitting in heavy traffic on my usual, long commute home from class. Bored and exhausted, I decided to scroll through Bumble in the middle of Highway 64. As fate would have it, I came across Alan's profile: photos of him posed pensively in art museums, a picture of him smiling charmingly at the camera with a drink in hand, and finally a picture of a Slytherin flag hanging in his room. Hook, line, and sinker. I swiped right and slid in his DMs with: "I'm still waiting on my Hogwarts letter too".

Our first date landed on Valentine's Day. I had absolutely no expectations and only one primary objective: a free meal. Unbeknownst to me, I was about to have the worst pizza and beer of my life...but with the love of my life. This is where the fun really starts though. In the 3.5 years that we dated and 2 years engaged, Alan learned that I am late to everything and I learned that he's the most patient man on the planet. With both our careers being in healthcare, our professional lives dictated how little free time we had. Nonetheless, we were dedicated to prioritizing each other. So naturally we frolicked through the Swiss mountains, drank spritzs in Italy, swam in the French Riviera, food toured our way through New York City and Los Angeles, and explored all the stops in between.

Through the highest highs and deepest lows in our journey so far, I found my North Star in Alan. He's the light to which I can always orient myself, my unwavering half that allows me to make sense of everything else.

In 2019, I had finished medical school and was pursuing a residency in Anesthesiology in Saint Louis, MO. It was the first time in my life where I could finally refer to myself as “doctor”, instead of “student doctor”. Of course, as a single male, I was going to make sure everyone on Bumble, Hinge, and Tinder knew this fact. Eventually, the Bumble algorithm led me to a match with a beautiful pharmacy student named Thao. We immediately connected over nostalgic Vietnamese food, Harry Potter, and A Game of Thrones. On our first date, I told her several exaggerated facts about me in an attempt to swoon her. I found out she was a big fan of Kendrick Lamar, so I told her I was too (I was not). I also told her I was a good cook (I am not). She has since found that I don’t know the lyrics to any Kendric Lamar songs, and I’ve been banned from the kitchen.

The next five years would go on to teach me invaluable lessons about love. We would move in together, finish our respective training together, make life altering career decisions together, endure a year-long long-distance relationship of almost 1000 miles together, obtain our first real jobs together, and finally move back in together in my home city of Houston.

Our relationship has undergone several transitions and I’ve had the experience of falling in love with her over again for every single one of them. When I realized that I was going to wake up and choose her every single day, I enlisted the help of friends and family and asked for her hand in marriage in Brooklyn, New York on a rooftop with a backdrop of the beautiful NYC skyline. She was so excited she “blacked out”, doesn’t remember anything I said, but at least she said yes!