It’s late September 2009, and Cal Poly Pomona’s campus is alive with club booths, bake sales, Greek signs for the sororities and fraternities, and various other social activities.  I, normally uninterested in large social gatherings, agreed to attend a sporting event with my roommate Yosif on the back soccer fields. On the day of the event, Yosif and I made our way to the back fields and headed straight for the top of the bleachers.  From there, we would periodically spot a familiar face from the dorms, classes, or CLA soccer.  Some would wave hello and others would come to join us for a few minutes to catch up, and then continue on their way.

From time to time a stranger, to me, would wave hello to Yosif.  I smiled politely and sometimes waved back, but I was content not knowing who they were or how Yosif knew them, until a small group of girls walked by and waved up to us.  “Do you know them?” I asked, trying to hide my excitement.  I was fixated on just one of the group, the smallest one, as Yosif explained how he knew them from the week’s activities.  It didn’t seem like Yosif was particularly close to any one of them, and as they walked away, I felt the ache of a missed connection.

As the night wore on, I eventually found myself reading in the dorm room, waiting for Yosif and some other friends.  I heard Yosif talking to someone in the hallway and decided to see if it was someone that I knew.  I was astonished to see that it was the girl I had seen from the bleachers.  She was dressed differently now, racecar red high heels and a knee length black dress, she was obviously on her way out, with my luck, it was probably a date.  I hadn’t yet decided if I was more scared or excited when Yosif said “this is my roommate, Alex”.  “Hi” I spewed, as I stretched out my hand, wondering if I actually said “hi” or if I had just thought it to myself.

Her hands were delicate and warm, and her smile was bright, contagious.  I don’t remember her telling me her name, my heart was beating so loudly I’m surprised we didn’t have to shout above the noise.  I was unbearably nervous, but I managed to make conversation for a short while.  She confirmed that she was going to a party – thank God it’s not a date – she explained that the theme was angels and devils.  It’s hard to tell how long the conversation lasted, but for that brief moment in time it was just the two of us.

It was some time after the encounter before I had processed what happened, and realized that I didn’t know anything about this girl.  It didn’t matter now, she had gone off to her party and I would likely never see her again.  I figured it was harmless to ask “how do you know that girl we were talking to earlier?” I asked Yosif, trying to be as casual as possible.  He replied “She lives next door”.  I can only imagine the stupor on my face right then, but I was bursting at the seams trying to contain my excitement.  How could I get so lucky, to meet a beautiful girl, somehow manage to not screw up our first conversation, and now, I find out that she is my neighbor.  I was sure to see her again at some point, and I told myself that I would at least make sure to remember what we talked about.

It was closing in on midnight, and Yosif was ready to go to bed.  I was still in the middle of a chapter in my book, so I decided to read in the hallway so he could sleep.  At least that’s what I told him, it’s what I told myself.  Really, I was waiting, hoping for an opportunity to see the girl again, the one from the field, the one from the hall, the one I always hoped to get a chance to know.  I knew I wouldn’t see her again that night, but it made me feel good to hope that I would.

I was only reading for a short time, when, by some stroke of unusually good fortune, the door of the room next to mine swung open, and she walked out.  She was only there to fill a bottle of water at the fountain nearby, and I was far to confused at how strange the moment was for me, to say anything right then.  When the door closed, I thought I had again missed my chance, I was just about to get up to return to my room, but I stubbornly decided to actually read my book, angry at myself for missing another golden opportunity.

When the door opened a second time I knew I would be silent again.  I would be a coward and pretend to read my book, silently cursing myself, so angry that I would let this chance slip away.  However, it hadn’t occurred to me that she would not let things go so easily, that this girl would not let this opportunity go to waste.  She sparked a conversation with me, asked me why I was in the hall way.  I was floored, stunned, shocked at how unusually lucky the last few hours had been.  Seeing a beautiful girl, running into her again in the hallway, finding out that she was my neighbor, and now she wanted to talk to me?  It was the kind of thing that never happens to me, it was amazing, but very unreal.  I came to find, very late in our encounters, I think, that her name is Lisa.

I don’t know what I said or how it sounded when it all came out, but we spent the whole night talking, in the hallway, in her room, as we walked around campus in the early morning as the sun came up.  Talking to Lisa was easy.  That was the first thing I noticed, the second was how necessary it felt for me to tell her everything there was to know.  Like it would somehow mean something.  Little did I know that I was falling in love, I was already in love, and that I had found the woman I would spend the rest of my life with.