Serendipity
Flashback to 2013. I was juggling graduate school, my dream teaching job, my first apartment, and a bad breakup. A couple of my girlfriends decided to come visit and lift my spirits, and we made the last minute decision to grab tickets to see a Giants vs. Eagles NFL game. I was living close to the city at the time and it was just a short train ride away and something to do. We had a seriously good time but I had no idea that the real highlight of the night (and really my life!) was to come after the game ended.
We were spent and waiting for our train back home when my friend, Olivia, realized she lost her ticket. We were kind of annoyed but looking back, I don’t think I have ever been more grateful for a single moment in time because it was in that moment of turning back that I met the love of my life. While grabbing a second ticket for Liv, a group of guys approached us and asked us about the city, places we might recommend, etc. We learned that they were over here traveling from Australia and they, too, were at the game but our paths just hadn’t crossed yet. Against our better judgment and literally everything our parents instilled in us about not running off with strangers, we followed them into Times Square.
Syman and I exchanged a few words but he was definitely on the shy side. Luckily for him, I wasn’t. After a few drinks and moments of catching him looking at me, I was finally like “ok, enough is enough!” I went right up to him and asked him why he wasn’t talking to me and the rest is kind of history. We left the group and went off on our own to a different part of the bar we were at. We instantly hit it off and had a connection that made me feel like there was no one else in the room but us. My friend still jokes to this day that she watched us fall in love while everyone hung out and we disappeared to our own world instead. Time just kind of stood still and we both knew something was there. We shared our first kiss and exchanged numbers. He reluctantly walked me to my taxi that we both didn’t want to arrive, and we wondered if we’d ever see each other again.
Before I even made it back to my apartment he was messaging me to make sure I got home safely, and we consistently talked from that point on. We learned more about each other via text, started reading the same book “together” from afar, and eventually made the decision that we would see each other again. He encouraged me to apply for a teaching program in Paris that I was considering, and before then I had never even left the country. But I applied, got accepted, and my travel dates overlapped with his time he had planned to spend in London. He somehow convinced me to extend my summer in Paris and book a Contiki tour that would allow us to visit 10 different countries… together. It was all INSANE, but I agreed and counted down the days until I would see him again.
Syman got to Europe after my 6 week teaching program ended, and our first official “date” was in a little Parisian pub where we stayed talking until 7am. Two days later, we were off to Germany as perfect strangers. And a few short weeks after that, we both just knew that this was it. We traveled around the rest of Europe together, got matching tattoos, paraglided through mountains and so much more. I finally let my parents know what was really going on, and eventually brought him home with me to meet them. 4 short months later we were engaged, and within 6 months after that I was walking toward him on the beach to say, “I do.” It was a whirlwind romance and my favorite love story of all time. True serendipity.
“So I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you.” —Paulo Coelho