Sai and Labiba first met in 2019 on the first day of the post-bac program at Temple Medical School. For most of the year, they were part of the same friend group.
It was a running joke among their friends that Sai and Labiba would end up dating at some point. Even though both of them denied anything, something was definitely brewing.
In March 2020, the friends all got together to hang out for St. Patrick’s day. At the end of the night, Sai decided to ask Labiba to get dinner later that week. She was surprised but excited and agreed. Unfortunately, the next day the city of Philadelphia was put on lockdown and they returned home for the next few months during the pandemic.
In July 2020, Sai and Labiba were back in Philadelphia to work in the anatomy lab at Temple before the start of medical school. On July 8th, they finally went on their first date–only 5 months later. What they thought would be just an hour or two turned into them hanging out at Yard’s until closing time. The time flew by and they realized that maybe there was something more brewing than what they thought was just friendship.
Over the next few months, they took every chance to spend time together–whether it was studying together during the day or trying all of the happy hours in Philadelphia. Without even realizing it, the two “friends” became a couple.
Over the next few years, Labiba and Sai went through medical school. They learned more about themselves and each other. They helped each other get through the hard parts of medical school and made the easier parts even more enjoyable. They learned more about each other’s values, goals, and plans for the future. They realized that even though they came from different backgrounds they shared the same ideologies and vision for the future, a future that now involved each other.
Sai knew that he would make Labiba his wife. He also knew that there was a trip to Paris coming up which meant that there was an opportunity that could not be missed. With the blessing of her parents and the help of their closest friends for planning, everything fell into place.
On a crisp fall morning on a picturesque Parisian street, Sai asked Labiba to marry him.
She said yes