This article originally appeared on the GW Alumni News blog.
Thanks to Saira Thadani, SMPA BA ’13, and Miguel Alvarez, SEAS BS ’12, for sharing their story!
Miguel and I met at the Marvin Center during a group interview in the fall of 2010. I was a sophomore and he was a junior and we remained in touch after! The following summer, I began working at the Multicultural Student Services Center and during that time, Miguel made a point to stop by daily to chat with me. Soon, we started spending more time together and summer evening walks around the monuments became our thing.
The friendship grew into romance, and in September 2011, Miguel asked me to be his girlfriend on the first floor of Ivory Tower.
During the rest of our years at GW, we had many Gelman study dates, and long talks and lots of laughter in Kogan Plaza. We even served together on the e-board of the Organization of Latino American Students (OLAS). Even with all the hecticness of life at GW with never-ending assignments and nonstop student org events, we kept up our favorite tradition of long walks around the monuments.
After graduating from GW, Miguel was offered a job as a project engineer for the Gelman renovation and I moved to New York City for a job working with charter schools. During the years of long distance, we took many bus and train rides (over 200 bus rides so far!) and spent many many hours on the phone.
Six years after Miguel asked me to be his girlfriend, he asked me if I would marry him. On December 9, 2017, he proposed on a snow-covered rooftop during a magical, snowy NYC night.
We plan to wed in late-2018 and are excited for many more monument walks in the years to come!