Love at First Fight

A story told by Sushma and Rohini (two people who were not integral to any part of it)

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It was the start of a brand new semester at Albany Medical College and the day turned out to be just like every other one - gloomy, cold and miserable. Like every morning, most med students were skipping class (the weather had nothing to do with it, second years ditched on the regular). Dave, the one exception to this rule, diligently made his way to campus. Don't be fooled, this wasn't because he was an exemplary student. He had just calculated that the per day cost of medical school was more than his rent and was trying to get his money's worth.

Because it was the first day of a new semester, Vaibhavi was determined that this was the day she'd become the medical student she had always dreamed of being. She revamped her entire wardrobe with J Crew outfits (not at all relevant to medical school), decorated her house with Yankee candles (also not relevant to medical school), and decided she would start going to class more often (actually relevant to medical school).

She went to her first day of class and sat down next to the five people in the 300-seat auditorium. Moments later, a grumpy curmudgeon in a hoodie (spoiler alert: this is Dave), showed up and angrily demanded she get out of “his” seat.

“Ummmm…...I don’t see your name on it,” she replied snarkily (emboldened by her new outfit). Taken aback by her response, he begrudgingly sat in the seat next to her, scheming how to plot his revenge.

The next day, Vaibhavi got to class and headed to what she now considered her “usual” seat, only to find that there was a taped-on “Dave” nametag on it.  Turns out the hoodied curmudgeon had arrived a whole 10 minutes earlier to class, just to mark his territory.  Vaibhavi had lost a chair war she didn’t even know she was in.

[Editors’ note: Both of us thought this was Dave attempting to be flirtatious. Sadly, we confirmed that he truly only did this to be funny. He’s more obtuse than we thought].
A few days go by and the two of them started to get to know each other, chatting before and after class. Eventually, their daily conversations led to a very romantic topic…science fiction/fantasy movies. Dave asked Vaibhavi if she liked Lord of The Rings, and Vaibhavi - having only seen the movies for Orlando Bloom - replied “yeah! I love that stuff!”.

One day, Dave invited Vaibhavi over to watch The Hobbit, and so began the plans for what she assumed was their first date. Little did Vaibhavi know... Dave had actually invited over a bunch of other people to watch this movie too. In Dave's mind, this was absolutely not a first date.

That night, Vaibhavi and her roommate spent hours picking out the perfect (J Crew) outfit for the evening. Meanwhile, Dave prepared by baking a loaf of bread (he has interesting hobbies).

It just so happened that none of the other friends Dave invited were able to make it, so it ended up being just the two of them, watching a three hour movie, with one loaf of bread.

Luckily for Dave and Vaibhavi, there are three Hobbit movies, so by the third one, Dave finally realized that this girl was someone he actually enjoyed hanging out with. Over the next two years, they watched many more movies together, discovered each others’ hobbies (for Dave: watching Notre Dame football and for Vaibhavi: eating Cicero’s pizza), and eventually made plans to "couples match" at the same residency program.

[Editors' Note: For those who don't know what Match Day is - it's when medical students open an envelope to find out where  they will be going for residency....and all of their closest friends and family travel from near and far to watch them open said envelope. It's really no pressure at all]. 

Vaibhavi and Dave's first choice was to match together at SUNY Stonybrook. Their absolute last choice was to match at different places far away from each other, the farthest option being SUNY Buffalo, 6 hours away from Stonybrook.

Come match day, Vaibhavi was her usual self - calm, cool and collected.

[Editors' note: Wow, we couldn't even type that with a straight face].

Obviously, Vaibhavi was a nervous wreck. She and Dave opened their envelopes together in the middle of a circle of excited family members and friends..... watch the video for what happened next!

Fast forward to December 2018, Dave and Vaibhavi were preparing to go to Morocco for what Vaibhavi thought was just an ordinary vacation. Dave, however, had other plans, and brought along a shiny diamond ring, stashed in his GoPro camera bag.

After a few days of the constant fear of being mugged, he found an opportune moment to propose while on a desert getaway.

Dave asked Vaibhavi to marry him, on a perfectly clear night, under a blanket of stars.

[Editors’ note: We wrote this very nice and romantic paragraph against our will. You’re welcome, Vaibhavi].

Now, two engagement parties and a not-wedding-but-basically-a-wedding in Bangalore later, Dave and Vaibhavi are looking forward to actually tying the knot! They’ve promised us that it won’t be as long as a Lord of the Rings movie, and that no J Crew dress code will be enforced.

## COVID EDIT  ##

It turns out September 6, 2020 was not an auspicious date according to the Hindu calendar. Despite Vaibhavi and Dave's valiant efforts to defy the religious universe (aka Vaibhavi's two grandmas) and stick with the original date, the wedding has officially been postponed to September 5, 2021.

..... also COVID-19 might've played a small part, but we can't say for sure.

Vaibhavi and Dave are excited to celebrate their wedding with you all when it's safe (and more importantly, auspicious), to do so!