Furi Kuri and I met in college, where we both attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN during the fall of my senior year and her sophomore year. Casual dating soon turned into something more serious and before too long we both realized that we had some thing truly special.
After nearly a year of being together in the college setting, our relationship was put to a test: distance. We had grown to love each other in that college bubble where all we had to worry about were grades and where the party was. Despite this environment, we could not deny that what we had grew out of a deep personal connection, rather then the convenience of being in the same place at the same time. When I graduated, and Furi Kuri still had 2 years left in school, we decided to stay together. This meant that I would be home in Pennsylvania, or fourteen hours by car, and two and a half hours by plane from Nashville. We could manage it. I could speculate on cheap flights and drive when I had to. However, only three weeks after graduation I was told that I got the job that I was hoping for… In California.
It was a more difficult challenge, but we would make it a priority to see each other as often as we could. She could sneak out to LA during school holidays, and I could fly to see her in Nashville on my own time to compliment that. But California proved to be only the warm up for what we would soon be facing.
Several months after I had moved to California, Furi Kuri told me that she was going to Australia for six months. It didn't come as a surprise; we had talked about it leading up to her decision to go. However, it was on us to mentally prepare for not seeing one another for such a long time because we both knew a break was not an option.
Some of our friends from home and college told us we were crazy for trying to beat the distance. We made our arguments for why we did, that it was something special and worth the challenge. They continued their nay-saying, while others warned us that we might get hurt, but we were unaffected by their discouragement because we knew that they didn't understand our commitment to each other. To be so young and so lucky to have found someone that we care about so profoundly is truly a blessing.
After nearly a year in California, I was working with a new company and Furi Kuri was back from Australia and in class in Nashville. We were just about to get used to that when the company I was working for announced that they would be moving to Ireland, and I was invited to come along for the next 2 years. It was an opportunity that I would have been foolish to pass up, but it was the hardest thing in the world to be so far from the people I care about, especially Furi Kuri.
She didn't want to give me up, however, and I felt the same way about her, so in our most insane act yet, we decided that the distance wouldn't beat us. A year later Furi Kuri graduated from college and moved up to New York where she had landed a job on Wall Street. We spent what little extra money we had on flights to see each other every other month and through daily correspondence, phone calls, and hand written notes we continued to make it work.
This past fall I asked Furi Kuri to marry me. After the wedding this October she will be moving out here to Ireland and we will start a new chapter in our lives together.
Through the years we have risen to each new challenge we've faced and become stronger because of it. We are a simple old fashioned love story and though some might call us crazy, we will now have the pleasure of being crazy together for the rest of our lives.
Next up, the proposal!
