Alex came to LMU from San Diego and lived in Doheny with guys from Hawaii. I (Taryn) was also from Hawaii. Through Na Kolea meetings we started to have many mutual friends but never officially met.
One day there was a barbeque at a house off-campus, where we met and immediately became close friends. While we never explored dating in college (I was Miss Independent!), we always stayed close and had a fling for years, and were always together between classes as communication studies majors.
Then, we graduated and continued living our separate lives as young professionals. At the start of the pandemic, Alex decided to FaceTime me to catch up. It had been 10 years since I had seen his face on campus! He looked great, and we instantly fell in love. We were always best friends, and always had a thing - and now it was finally the right timing. He asked me to marry him shortly after (I said yes!) Now, we're planning our wedding and will be married in August in Hawaii.
Fun fact: ALL 5 of his groomsmen, including his best man, are all LMU graduates too - same class! Best Man: Akash Patel '13. Groomsmen: Mike Derenzo '13, Babatunde Olugbade '13, Erick Bozeman '13, Kellen Mira '10. Our Musician at the wedding is Shane Tsukayama '10. It's a giant LMU reunion, and many more to name that will be celebrating with us. They are our friends who became family at LMU.