Wedding Day!

In less than 1 hour, two Colleen and Jay, friends that I have met through the TV show Lost and through the unlimited possibilities of new media, will get married. I could not be more thrilled for them. I have been thinking about their wedding for days. As I have secretly been counting the hours until their special moment, I remembered how I got to know them for the very first time: in Hawai’i.

Meeting Colleen and Jay (as well as Cindy, Jack and Cliff for that matter) in Hawai'i was one of the highlights of my life. I remember how nervous I was, my whole body was shaking. Interacting with them in person was even better than seeing the actors of Lost and the beginning of the end of the series at Sunset on the Beach. They were like my idols…

I will NEVER forget Jopinionated’s Lost meet-up. All I am saying is Mai Tais”… It was quite an amusing night. Additionally, it was the first time in my life I enjoyed a party, that I did not feel like I was bothering everybody and that I did not feel out of place. And I still cannot believe I did not chickened out because I had never met a single person who was going to attend.

Well, meeting Jay and Colleen was a dream come true.

Colleen & I in Raleigh, March 2010

Seeing them again in Raleigh later that year and then in LA for the Lost finale party was just as special and surreal.

I had been listening to their respective podcasts (the MetroBus & the Lost Podcast with Jay and Jack) for such a long time and they had become part of my close circle of friends (only in my head, of course), but then twitter came around and I could finally interact a bit with Colleen. Our friendship grew warmer over the years and even though it is super difficult to stay in teach living on two different continents, I feel like we have become close friends.

March 2010

I thank God for the opportunity of having met them and having had the privilege of spending time with them, talking to them, not being rejected by them. And I will always be grateful for the chance they have given me, a chance to realize that I am not “nothing”.

I stole Colleen's picture from Facebook..... muaaaahhhh

I remember the moment that I heard of their engagement. I just returned from a job interview in Heidelberg, Germany, and was on my way from the Atlanta airport back to Anderson, SC. I stopped to get some Diet Coke and to take a break. Of course, as is my obsession, I checked twitter and read all kinds of "suspicious" looking @replies congratulating Colleen and Jay. When I figured out they were engaged, I started to cry with tears of joy. I remember sitting in that car at the parking lot of Burger King celebrating that these two wonderful people had found each other.

Colleen, you are marrying into a family that is - no doubt - one of the warmest, most loving families ever and you are a hell of a lucky girl to have the soon-to-be parents-in-law. And Jay is not that bad either. hehe

I know that Jay cherishes you. I saw the way he looks at you, the way he talks about you.

Jay, please never forgot how lucky you are marry this awesome young lady; a woman who I have been looking up to for years. Colleen is not only breathtakingly beautiful, but smart, independent, competent, funny, thoughtful and caring.

I congratulate the two of you from the bottom of my heart.

Today begins a whole new chapter for you, as you will start your lives as one.

I know that this life will be filled with bliss and laughter and joy, as you will live happily ever after. ;)

I am sending you all my love and try to enjoy each and every single moment. I will be thinking of you!