It’s been repeated many times that there’s a crazy high statistic for the percentage of AIESEC marriages that have come to be – something like 1 in 3 people in AIESEC wind up getting married to another AIESECer. Or maybe it’s 1 in 3 AIESEC relationships turns into marriage. I don’t know if that’s true, but whatever the case, it certainly wouldn’t shock me. Technically Joe and I knew of each other long before we were properly introduced face-to-face. He was the mythical former President of AIESEC US. I was the new (and much younger) AIESEC US staff member. However, I can’t say that I was interested straight off the bat, and possibly neither was he. It took about 3 years of friendship before things heated up.
Our friendship really began my first day living in NYC when I went with Joe and a few friends to a Yankees game. After that we hung out pretty regularly – mostly on weekends – oftentimes at the parties he and Scott hosted. Eventually I joined the same Zog Sports volleyball team where Joe and I began hanging out more and more frequently. And at some point our flirtations grew more and more apparent, until I finally confessed to my sister at a Cinco de Mayo party (after a Corona or two) that I had a bit of a crush. At the time, I was considering leaving New York, and was just contemplating where my next move would be. Being the amazing big sister that Lesley is, she struck up a conversation with Joe that night (totally unprovoked by me, I should add), and proceeded to tell me later that he seemed genuinely devastated at the thought of me leaving New York. Although her version of the story may have been slightly embellished, she successfully planted the seed in my brain that maybe…just maybe Joe and I should try being more than friends.
The next day, luck would have it that Joe and Scott hosted one of their epic rooftop barbeques. After some wardrobe advice from BFF, Jen, I worked up the nerve to suggest the idea of “more than friends”. And here we are – over two years later – an AIESEC statistic! :)