In the honor of Saint Valentine's Day, it only seemed fitting that I dedicate this blogpost to amore... AKA love.
A couple years ago I wrote this blogpost on Love day, and if that doesn't show how much of a romantic I am + that Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays, I don't know what to tell you. But the truth of the matter is that I love love and I can't believe I can finally say that I found somebody I am head over heels in love with. And somebody who is head over heels in love with me.
But without exposing too much, I just wanted to write about me and my fiancé in the spirit of V Day. I hope one day to write our proper love story (with the goal of it turning into a Netflix original - Netflix, if you're reading this, you know where to reach me) but for all intents and purposes, I just want to tell a good ass story.
My fiancé and I met two summers ago, but our story starts way before that. We lived completely different, yet totally the same, lives halfway across the world from one another. For those who don't know, he's Italian and I'm American. And yet, we were brought together by some twist of fate or what some might call destiny.
One could say that coincidences are the building blocks of our relationship. I would have to agree. However, we'd say that our foundation is shared values. We both come from small families - one sibling each. And with sets of parents who are childhood/high school sweethearts. We're blessed to have grown up with so much love and support from our families, which is what we hope + intend to replicate with our own one day. But our parents allowed us to see the world and pursue dreams of our own, so who we have become as adults is all thanks to them. We are so lucky and even luckier to have found each other.
What they don't tell you is that the clichés are true. "Love finds you when you least expect it." "Everything happens for a reason." "Nothing worth it is ever easy." I've heard these my whole life, and while I get the overused banality of it all, I always knew there is truth to everything. After all, how else can you explain why these sayings endure generations? I could write pages on this topic and maybe one of these days I will. Until then, I'm fully dedicated to understanding the meaning of each and every one.
But back to the topic of this blogpost, our love story. I'll summarize quick but I know it won't do it justice. So, if you want the full story, we'll just have to meet over a coffee :)
We both attended the same grad school, but were a year apart. We sought post-graduate education in London for similar reasons, and found ourselves doing the same ambassador roles for the school. Of course, I did it first so in a way, Mario was following in my footsteps. We even lived in the same room, as Mario ended up moving into my old flat days before he and his roommate would have been without a roof. My flatmate and I left behind furniture, bedding, kitchenware, etc. for future tenants to use and enjoy. Mario likes to say that I've always been taking care of him - even when we didn't know it. But I think the craziest part of this whole thing was that Mario had been interested in me from the very first moment he saw me on the school's Instagram - an entire year before he moved into the flat. And the rest is history.
Mario is my best friend and I feel so blessed to have him as my life partner. Ti amo!
