I can’t tell you what our very first words were to each other. But what I know for certain is that I was shocked when I woke up on the Sunday of my 22nd birthday to find a handsome stranger having coffee with my friends in my living room. I wish I could remember the exact moment. What he said, what I said. But that part is all a blur. But we gravitated to each other like magnets. We spent the entire day together as a group running around Philadelphia. First brunch, then day party, then hookah bar, with a few rounds of Uno to end the night. I of course won almost every hand. By the end of the night we knew we’d be friends. It was in the coming weeks that we realized it would be much more than that. With opposite schedules, living in different states, and I not driving it felt like maybe the odds were stacked against us. But like everything, Ramy made it happen and moved mountains to spend time with me.

We both have a love for travel and exploring. That wanderlust guided us to beautiful places like Mexico, Italy, Spain, and the Dominican Republic. The one destination we were most excited to visit together one day would be Egypt. I asked Crystal if she wanted to go in December and make a stop in Paris and she instantly said yes. We spent 48 hours in Paris and then a few days in Cairo introducing her to family then venturing to the Red Sea and Luxor before returning to Cairo. In Luxor, I scheduled a sunrise hot air balloon ride. They picked us up at 3:30 a.m. and to my surprise I was very nervous. At 6 a.m. we were floating in the sky in a basket. I was able to sneak a photographer on to capture the moment. He gave the captain a signal, music turned on, and I asked Crystal to marry me.