How we met

The very first time I had ever seen Ryan was at our dental school retreat at Pack Forest before the start of 1st year.  The whole class was in a large field standing in a circle playing some corny ice breaker game when I (being a UW Husky), noticed a guy standing across the way clothed from head to toe in WSU Cougar gear.  We didn’t talk much at the retreat since there was so much other stuff going on.  Shortly after our first meeting we started school and because his last name is “Zentz” and mine is “Ahluwalia” we were always on opposite sides of everything, whether it be the anatomy lab, our place in line or the simulation lab.  While we continued to run into each other in the hall outside anatomy lab we still hadn’t talked much.  A group of people with similar interests started hanging out after class and on the weekends.  At first this group was quite large and we didn't get many opportunities to get to know each other, but I felt an invisible pull in his direction.  As our friend circle became more intimate I started to notice that under all of his Coug gear was a quiet, mysterious guy.  I remember trying to talk to him a couple of times and not getting too much of a response, even though he would be very outgoing with others, which seemed unusual.  Despite his aloof demeanor towards me, he was always a gentleman and for the most part kept to himself…which intrigued me even more.  We started to hangout in groups more often and he started to open up and not be so distant.  After finals on the last day of class before Christmas break, I texted him to see what he was doing and to my surprise he was going Christmas shopping at the U Village…My favorite!  He picked me up and we walked around, more talking and laughing than shopping.  We were having a casual lunch at Specialty Bakery when he realized I had never seen the movie: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.  We rented the movie, sat on opposite ends of the couch and watched it in my apartment.  After the movie he left uneventfully and I remember thinking to myself “he must think I am so weird…”

First Date

…Apparently he didn't think I was too weird.  After another quarter, small hangouts and a Spring Break In Mexico, we had just started our 3rd quarter of dental school.  Ryan had asked me to go to dinner.  This would be the first time we would be going on an official date.  He picked me up on a rainy Saturday night in April and took me to the Icon Grill in downtown Seattle.  I remember thinking that he was such a gentlemen, opening my doors, covering my head with an umbrella when it rained and helped me walk the bumpy streets of Seattle in my heels.  The restaurant was beautifully decorated with colorful blown glass chandeliers and unique pieces of art.  During dinner we not only realized that we both loved artichoke crab dip, but learned that we had a lot in common.  We talked about anything and everything and it was…comfortable, easy and felt right.  At the end of the night I remember asking him if he wanted dessert and him unhesitatingly saying “yes.”  After ordering the dessert of my choice, he only took one bite from it the whole time as I devoured the whole thing (obviously).  I asked him why he said he wanted dessert if he wasn't going to eat any.  To which he replied, “well, my dad always taught us that if a girl asks, ‘Do you want dessert?’ the answer is always yes, because she wants some even if you don’t.” From then on I knew that there would be many more desserts together in the future…       

The proposal 

It was the end of our 4th year in dental school and so many BIG changes were happening and were going to happen in our lives very quickly: just passed our licensure exams, finished our school requirements, just got jobs in the Tri-cities, were getting a puppy in the middle of May, were graduating in the beginning of June and then moving to the Tri-cities shortly after graduating.  Although I had known for a long time that Ryan was “The One,” there was SO much going on in the last month or so before graduation that getting engaged was not on my radar at all.  It was our 3 year anniversary and I was just getting out of Friday DUCC (the dental urgent care clinic).  Ryan called me and told me that my mother called him and asked if we wanted to go over there for dinner that night.  I remember asking him why she wanted us to come over that night when we were going to see her on Sunday for Mother’s Day.  Too tired to discuss anything I agreed…but as long as we could go to Costco before so I could pick up some groceries for the baby shower I was helping throw the next day.  After Costco we drove to my parents’ house in Renton for dinner.  I got out of the car, my hands full of groceries for my parents, and reached out to ring the doorbell.  But, before I could ring it, Ryan grabbed my hand and said “I know how much your parents mean to you and I know you would want them here when I did this…” and got down on his knee.  Saying that I was surprised would be an understatement.  Obviously I said, “YES!”  We then went inside where my parents were waiting for us with champagne and cake and had an intimate dinner to celebrate…it was perfect.