It's going to be #Le-Chen.....Dary

March 2019 - I was at Who Seek with some work friends chatting over sweets. Unfortunately, I lost track of time snacking on my perfectly fluffy Honey cube - iykyk, and was 20? 30? minutes late to our first date. (sorry Alec) When I arrived, he got up, hit me with that side hug, and proceeded to share shrimp and calamari appetizers with me. Dinner was lovely, until I found out that he hates seafood and his least favorite food on the planet is shrimp. We had intentional conversations where I learned that he grew up in a Buddhist home, but became Christian in high school, something really important to me since I grew up going to mass on Saturday, and the temple on Sunday. I also learned that he was an engineer with ambitions to settle close to his parents in Nova and be a stay at home dad- music to my ears. Dinner ended but our conversation continued for a few more hours as we walked up and down the aisles of the Giant next door. Everything was going so well until, I distinctly remember being in front of the coffee Haagen Dazs, when he started talking about .... Pokemon. A few aisles later we were by the cheeses, and he was STILL talking about Charmander's fire tail. I couldn't believe it. *heavy sigh* I didn't hear from him for a few days until UVA won the championship. Wahoowa! Eventually when we were both in town again, we went on some walks, he bought me some ice cream, we went on more walks, he bought me some fries, and we fell in love. Alec came to my White Coat Ceremony and supported me through every high and low of med school. In return, I made him matching Pokemon sweaters for Christmas this year. And they lived happily ever after

It was a (maybe) brisk Wednesday in March of 2019. I had dressed better than usual when I went into work and got called out for it. "I gotta make a good impression cause, who knows, this could be the one". Little did I know this girl IS the one. Even though she came 20 minutes late to Finn Thai at North Point, I still gave her a chance. Our conversation went on and on, and continued as we walked through Giant next door as it had started to get dark, and not many places were open. I almost messed it all up though as, I, not known for conversation, could not figure out how to start another conversation once we had parted ways. What did not help was she was about to go on a trip to Vietnam for a month (would I be able to handle not seeing her for a month??) and I was about to fly to Amsterdam for a few days. I was at a loss on what to message her and almost gave up, but thank God for the UVa-Purdue game (go Hoos!) as I messaged her right away even though it was 4 AM in Amsterdam. For some reason Melissa decided to respond to that even though UVa bball was the farthest thing from her mind. From then on, I can always say I was a part of UVa bball history as it helped me start on the journey with the love of my life.