Story
Who knew studying physics together could teach you so much about a person? We'd been acquaintances at UW's Catholic Newman Center for six months in our first year of college before we discovered we were taking the same level of physics and one of us desperately needed help (we'll leave you to guess which one). We tried studying together and ended up talking about everything other than physics. Our study sessions became conversations, which became walks on campus late at night and trips to the Seattle waterfront, which became officially starting to date in April 2019.
From there, we were each other's rock and each other's go-to for the rest of college. College was a busy and stressful time for us as we were both engineering majors balancing academics, jobs, clubs, and leadership roles at the Newman Center on top of our relationship. Despite the challenges, it drew us closer together and taught us how to support one another. We spent our time off exploring Washington on countless hikes, watching whole TV series and movie franchises, eating way too much junk food to feed our rival sweet tooths, and planning trips with our close group of college friends.
On February 21, 2022, we set off for another hike together. Arriving at the trailhead which was a little ways up in the mountains, we noticed that snow overnight had frosted all the trees in white. After a mystical hike through the sunbeam-pierced mist with snow falling out of the trees onto our heads, we found a private ledge with a view of the snow-covered mountains and sat down for lunch. Ryan set up a camera tripod we'd brought along to take some photos together as snowflakes fell into Maria's hair. He discovered the camera battery was dead and grabbed a new battery out of his bag to swap it. Except the new battery was actually hollow and inside was a diamond ring... and now we are engaged!
We're so excited to be getting married and beginning the next stage of our lives side by side. And we're so excited as well that we get to share a part of that journey with you! We hope to see you on December 17th!