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10 years ago today, I was living in a town near Amsterdam.

10 years ago today, I was studying culture, history and art in a 14th century castle.

10 years ago today, I had an almost-blank passport, a Eurail Pass, a backpack and a dream to travel around Europe.

10 years ago today, I was one month into my semester abroad and missing my new-ish boyfriend like crazy. I was in Paris. It was raining. My class took a bus from The Netherlands to Paris for a weekend excursion. We watched episodes of Friends the whole way down. When we got off the bus, we checked into our hotel. And I got the surprise of my life. It was February 14, 2003.

10 years ago today, Irving flew to Paris to surprise me. He waited for me in the hotel lobby. Holding a rose. On Valentine’s Day.

10 years ago today, I knew that I would marry Irving. I am smart enough to know that you don’t let a guy like that go.

10 years ago today, Irving and I walked hand in hand visiting the Louvre, Versailles, The Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. We sparked a love of travel that has been a force of nature ever since. We had 48 hours together in the most romantic city in the world. It will forever be one of the best weekends of my life.

I have less than 20 photos from that entire weekend (one roll of film a week was all I had!) But the memories are so vivid. I’ll never forgot the way he picked me up and spun me around in that hotel lobby full of Emerson students. I felt like the luckiest girl in the world.

Happy Valentine’s Day, babe. I love you more and more every day. Cheers to travel. Cheers to love. Cheers to us and a love that gets stronger every year. ❤

To see more photos (all 20 of them) from that weekend, click here!