I thought it was going to be a typical day at Philly Sips, a city-wide summer happy hour, with my best friend Veda. We went just the two of us to celebrate her taking her USMLE Step 1 exam and thought about how we would find friends to hang out with. Little did we know, it decided to pour that day and evidently we had no friends. As soon as the rain lightened, Veda and I stood on a ledge to scope out the crowd. I turned around and noticed this guy, this guy who was just an acquaintance from a few years ago.
I decided to go up to him and say hi. After chatting for a little, his friends were calling him to another place and somehow he convinced us to meet him there where he bribed us with tacos. Everyone knows that the way to my heart is through food and once we arrived, not only was there food waiting for us, but also, there was more than we asked for. We talked for hours on end, never skipping a beat.
The next day, he texted me making sure we got back home alright. I was nervous to continue talking to him, but something inside me said to see where it could go. After that day, I never looked back. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that this spur of the moment decision to go to Philly on that day would change my life forever.
I could have never imagined that a normal happy hour with my coworkers and friends could have changed my life forever. It was a rainy Wednesday afternoon and I thought I would only be staying at the bar for an hour or so before heading back home. This is very far from how the night turned out. As the rain let up, I stepped outside holding a drink and I see a girl running FULL speed up to me. Honestly, I was kind of scared she was going to run me over. I realized it was THE PRIYA JAIN. I could not believe the "popular" girl was talking to me! Now I realize I was the only option because she actually had no friends in Philly. We talked for a bit before I was pulled to the next bar but luckily I built enough courage to ask for her number.
While walking to Drinkers my friends told me to "shoot my shot" with Priya. She stuck in my mind the whole time and I did not want to miss the opportunity to see her again so I asked her to meet me at Drinkers. She replied saying only if I bought her A taco. I looked at the text and said to myself " Who only eats a single taco?? Maybe this girl is weird and I should just go home" I stayed and asked the bartender for 8 veggie tacos. A few minutes later Priya arrives with her friend Veda and I am standing there with a whole tray full of tacos. Priya was super excited and shocked I had bought so many for us. I had no idea this would win her heart over. We talked for hours at the bar and had some really good laughs.
The next day, she was all I could think about, everything reminded me of her and I could not stop smiling. I knew this was the start of something special as she was truly interested in learning more about me and my family. I eventually asked her out to our first date at Top Golf and here we are now, over 2 years later ready to marry the love of my life.
Weeks leading up to the proposal, I was so excited to have a free weekend of just Harshal and me time. After multiple weddings and friends proposals we would finally have time to enjoy a summer weekend in New York, a weekend with no concrete plans, a weekend which "happened" to be our anniversary weekend. Harshal had allowed me to plan an entire day to celebrate our anniversary. He cleverly mentioned he wanted to explore Brooklyn so I picked my favorite places to take him. I had told all my friends how excited I was to just go on a date together and spend time and not be bound by other life commitments. I thought the weekend would be relaxing and refreshing...boy was I wrong.
We started the day at Westlight, having a beautiful view of Manhattan. Then we went to DUMBO to take the infamous picture with the Brooklyn Bridge. Soon after Harshal stated he needed sunglasses so we went to a nearby Macy's and bought some. I didn't know this was in his plan to kill time before we arrived at the Gardens. Me thinking it was a typical day, I took a nap in the car, having no idea what was about to unfold. At the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, I honestly was tired and Harshal was showing no interest in the flowers, making me very confused as to why we had come there in the first place. He had mentioned prior that it was a nice place to see, which is why we added it to our list for the day. We entered the rose garden and asked a young lady who was getting her picture taken to take a picture of us. I yelled at Harshal asking why he would interrupt someone who was getting their picture taken to take one of us. We posed and she pretended to take a picture and then her husband (the photographer) pulled his camera up. I was so weirded out that this man was taking a picture of us with his camera and mentioned it to Harshal, which is when I realized what was happening. He turned to me, grabbed my hand and got down on one knee when my stupid self blurted "what are you doing..." I made him forget everything he was going to say. Everything went black...I don't think I even said "yes."
After the proposal, we went to a random bar called "Tookers" to get a drink and celebrate. A part of me thought that all our friends and family would be waiting for us there...they were not. Harshal had been working secretly with one of my best friends, Juhi, for MONTHS planning this day. He really knew how to throw me off and said that he just wanted to get dinner the two of us together to celebrate. My parents had also been telling me they had a party to go to that day for the past three months and I knew Harshal wouldn't have planned anything without them being there.
We were on our way back to Manhattan to "dinner" and pulled up to this place that said "office space available for rent." At that moment I knew something was up. It was an empty building, the doorman said there was a party upstairs, and the elevator had glitter in it. When we got to the top, we walked out to this beautiful rooftop where all of our closest friends and family were waiting. All I saw was over a hundred little heads staring and screaming at us. Harshal had planned the most beautiful, most perfect, magical moment to celebrate our engagement. It was truly more than I could have ever imagined and I couldn't be more happy to marry this incredible, thoughtful, kindhearted man.