We first met when we were 14 years old at St. Francis high school. I thought of him as a tall and lanky guy and he thought I was...a total weirdo. At the end of our third year of high school, Pratik, who we all know as being the most romantic guy out there, asked me to junior prom! He saw me as I walked down the hall, came up to me...and said, “hey, prom?” My response was, “sure!” And he replied, "I'll text you." So, it’s wasn’t as glamorous as everyone might have thought, but it was the start of a beautiful friendship! Pratik recently told me that it was after junior prom, he realized I was pretty cool (his words not mine). Senior year we hovered between the acquaintance-friends border. The one thing that brought us together was the International Showcase (thank you Aditi for forcing Pratik to join). After dance practice, Pratik and I started to carpool home. We would go to Coyote Hills and talk for hours or sit under the bridge and eat. This is when Pratik started to realize that he was madly in love with me! I, on the other hand, was oblivious and thought of him as my best friend. Our friendship progressed, he became my confidant and my biggest support. He would drop chocolates off at my house and pick flowers for me (granted they were from my own front yard). We went to senior prom together after he prepared one of the best "promposals" out there! We both ended up going to UCLA for college and survived the rollercoaster ride of freshman year. Finally, in 2012 when I was in India, I realized I couldn’t go one minute without talking to Pratik! I was so desperate to talk to him I started texting him with my feet while getting my mendhi done! Long story short, I came back to the US afterwards and we’ve been inseparable since :)

We landed in Santorini, Greece and drove to the beautiful resort we were staying at. We got ready for sunset drinks, and in typical Pooja fashion we were running late which, for some reason was making Pratik very nervous. We got our drinks and watched the sunset which was beautiful. We walked back to our suite "to grab a jacket" before going to dinner. I opened the door and our entire living room was decorated with candles and rose petals with music playing in the background! I was shocked and didn't quite catch on to what was happening. Pratik is very romantic at baseline, so I thought maybe he just wanted to have a nice ambiance during dinner! But we walked over to the balcony, and right then Pratik got on his knee and pulled out the beautiful ring! I was SHOCKED! And of course I said yes :) The rest of the night was spent eating our beautiful dinner (which was truly candle-lit there was no light whatsoever) in front of the Aegean Sea!