Last Saturday was the one-year anniversary of when I met my fiancée Leslie.

Earlier that day, I was in San Diego giving a speech. It was one of my favorite speeches ever. It was at a time when I lost myself a little bit. I did not know if I wanted to continue speaking. Also, the months were filled with angst because I had been really focused on getting out there and dating. My mind is always going a hundred miles per hour. I woke up that morning, got ready, and went to a luncheon where I spoke to the Women’s Trojan League and I loved it. I loved every minute of that trip. I had dinner the night before with a college friend of mine. I sat on the balcony of my hotel that had a partial view of the ocean. On stage I was on fire.

I had known about Leslie from my cousin Babak. He told me about her the week before. I came home from the speech and around 8:30 I received a text from Babak’s girlfriend introducing me to my now fiancée. We chatted for about ten minutes online, and that was the beginning of something incredible.

Before I met Leslie, I thought about love a lot. It had been six years since I broke up with my first girlfriend. Everything else in my life was incredible. I had just moved into my new house, but love was elusive. Part of me felt like a freak. Who would fall in love with me?

A year later, I was talking to my fiancée and we were both chatting about that day and how we cannot wait to see each other in three weeks.