Raiyan and I met during the first few months of freshman year at Rutgers University! Funny enough, our parents (who are old acquaintances) ran into each other at a wedding and introduced us to one another, thinking it would be great to have each other as friends since we lived on the same campus.

We had seen each other around our Hofstra college campus many years ago but never really spoke to one another. I graduated and he had moved away to complete his education out of state. The years that followed were interesting because we had a lot of mutual friends and some of his family members had also attended our college as well. There were various events that we were both invited to and that’s when we started looking at each other differently.

James and I met our first day of graduate school in Miami, Florida. We started dating our last year in our program. We connected over our love for ice cream and outdoor adventures. Two years later, we both moved to Maui and continued to explore the great outdoors. We had an extremely romantic proposal. James took me on a surprise trip to Oahu and booked a stay for us in one of the villas at the Turtle Bay Resort.

We met at a small party hosted by our mutual friends in 2016. After the party, I was back at home, scrolling through Facebook, and Loi was listed on my recommended friends list so I sent him a friend request. Loi sent me a message that same night, and we stayed up late chatting. Soon after, we went on our first date to see a movie and get lunch afterward. A couple of weeks later, Loi asked me to be his girlfriend by spelling it out on a dozen of Boston Kreme donuts from Dunkin.