Lina's Side of The Story: The first time I met Matt, we were both in college and my first impression of Matt was, "oh my gosh, he is a crazy boy!". He was not someone I even thought I would be friends with because of our vastly different interests. We had crossed paths several times, but quickly became strangers again. Fast forward 3 years, I was just starting my Occupational Therapy Program and I received a random FB message from Matt. We were living completely different lives and I had totally forgotten about him so it was really unexpected when he messaged me. He asked if I was attending the OT Conference and invited me to come watch his poster presentation. I thought sure, why not build my OT network and reconnect with an acquaintance. After his presentation, I told him good job and was about to leave when he awkwardly/abruptly tried to ask me to grab dinner with him. I told him "no" because I didn't want to drive back to LA. In my mind, an acquaintance was not worth the LA traffic and my gas living on a student budget. He immediately tried to shoot his shot again and asked if I wanted to grab coffee instead, but I still declined his offer. He was only there for the weekend and was really persistent on wanting to catch up, even though there was no "catching up" to do because we had no history nor ever had a one-on-one conversation. We were texting back and forth all day and he was trying his best to convince me to hangout. Eventually I gave in and I'm glad I did! The next day, his friends dropped him off at Din Tai Fung, in a mom van, and watched as he walked into the start of his new forever. :) Matt's Side of The Story: The year was 2016. I was one year ahead of her in OT school and we were both headed to a conference in LA. Before coming down, I slid in her DM's suggesting we should meet up. At the conference, she showed up as I was presenting my thesis, where I clearly remember thinking, “Wow she's cute! I need to find a way to hang out with her this weekend.” I went with asking her to grab coffee... for professional networking ;) We ended up going to Din Tai Fung and Dave N Busters that weekend – which to this day, I still call our first date! She won’t admit it, but I definitely think she was interested :) Fast forward a few months – following some long distance Face Time, we met in person in LA where I expressed my feelings toward her, and she reciprocated. That winter, we spent a week together in the Bay Area. SF tour, city views, top down drive, favorite foods – I tried everything to impress her! Also took advantage of the cold weather to get close and “keep her warm” (thank you SF). It was a great week :) In those few months, despite only seeing each other in person a couple times, I remember thinking about how much fun we had together, and how easy it was to be comfortable around her. I moved down to LA shortly after that. 6 years later – through many ups / downs, countless laughs, great times – I’m marrying my best friend, and I cannot be more excited for our next chapter in life together :)