Welcome friends, family, and search engine crawlers! Richard and Lauren’s story begins with two overachievers nervously meeting their fellow classmates on the first day of grad school.
I’ll never forget the day we first met. We talked about all sorts of things and I was very excited to meet someone with a 714 area code in their phone number. I didn’t know at the time, but it would one of the most important days of my life.
Lauren
There was something in her expression and demeanor that just felt like a ray of sunshine. At times anxious, but always warm and inexorably magnetic.
Richard
They would go on to sporadically have classes together as their concentrations shared some overlap but they hardly shared more than a few conversations together during their first few quarters.
Stanford was one of the best experiences of my life. I would go on to learn so much about environmental engineering, make life-long friends, and most importantly, begin an incredible journey with a wonderful man. I only wish that we could have been together at Stanford from the beginning.
Lauren
I loved grad school but it was hardly a time for socializing. I spent most of my time locked in my room trying to figure out my problem sets. When I got to my last quarter I only needed 3 credits but I still signed up for a full roster of classes. It was hard to choose and I figured if I got lazy I could drop a course. One of those courses was advanced hydrogeology.
Richard
Lauren also had signed up for advanced hydrogeology, an early morning course with a lab section and a series of assignments each more annoying than the last.
If there was going to be one class I was going to drop, it was going to be that one. A strange thing happened though. That first morning (and every class after that), after I had grabbed my seat in the first row, this really pretty girl came in and sat down next to me. I think that alone kept me in the class.
Richard
Every morning they would exchange a few pleasantries and ask each other small questions about the weekly problem sets. They had realized that they were both living in the same dorm earlier in the quarter and as they became friendlier, Richard worked up the courage to ask Lauren if she would like to eat together at the nearby dining hall.
They started hanging out more after that. Biking down to the Stanford Mall together or hiking the Dish, the discussions were constant and ranged all over the map. They talked about everything from engineering minutia to grammatical particularities with a healthy appreciation for fiction and history strewn throughout.
No matter how ridiculous or nonsensical the question, she will give you a well thought out reasoned answer. I love that about her.
Richard
Socializing had never been easy for me. I was always afraid that I would run out of interesting things to talk about with the person and they would soon get bored. But it was different with Richard. There was always something to talk about with Richard. I could feel a connection between us that I’d never felt with anyone else before.
Lauren
Eventually job offers and graduation came, Lauren ended up in the East Bay with a prominent engineering company while Richard headed to Sacramento to make a difference in the family business. They alternated driving to one another almost every weekend and often would even make time to meet during the week.
There is a town that sits almost exactly between Sacramento and Walnut Creek called Vacaville (or in English, Cow Town). We had a lot of midweek rendezvous in Vacaville and I think I can confidently state that we ate at every restaurant in town. I don’t think either of us cared what we did, just that we did it together.
Richard
It was so difficult to get through the work week without Richard. I was so excited when it would finally be Friday and I would get to see him. Sundays were the worst, and even though I knew I would see him in a few days, I would cry almost every time we had to say goodbye.
Lauren
Eventually they started talking about moving in together. Richard had been thinking about buying a house ever since he had experienced the joys of rent escalation and, frustrated with her own apartment living, Lauren bought into the project. With an equal equity partner in the deal, it became much more palatable to actually buy a home, also there was that thing about moving in together.
They began looking at listings and shopping around whenever they were together in the Sacramento area. After several months of searching and a couple losses they landed on a golden find freshly on the market and went for it. All the while Lauren worked out her transfer to her firm’s Sacramento office.
Over the next few months the house slowly came together as they gradually moved their belongings in until eventually there came a point when they were both leaseless and the house became their home.
When we finally moved in together, it didn’t feel like there was any period of transition or adjustment. I guess that was a sign that we were always meant to be together.
Lauren
We had talked about marriage before and I think I had been unconsciously shopping for rings for a while when one caught my eye. After an hour or so of deliberation I found that I had discovered a way to compress a large sum of money into a little black box.
Richard
Lauren had been away on a long trip and they were just getting ready to go on a trip with Richard’s family when, on the longest day of the year, inspiration struck.
The timing just felt right. I proposed right then and there in the house we had bought together. I didn’t even have the ring on me, I had to go grab it from where I was keeping it hidden. I think we were both in a daze for the rest of the evening.
Richard
I couldn’t have dreamed of a more perfect proposal. I’m pretty sure I fell against the wall and started crying the happiest of tears, knowing that I was going to spend the rest of my life with the love of my life.
Lauren