A true story of star-crossed lovers, Yogesh Patel Santa Cruz and his wife Amaya have a tale together that proves to be larger than many; and definitely more widespread. It all started fifteen years ago, when Yogesh graduated from college and was looking for a way to use his English degree to be an influence upon younger people. A friend introduced him to a job board for ESL professionals that included job postings that didn’t require a proper teaching degree. Considering that he had been thinking about getting a teaching degree, Yogesh decided to hop in the fast lane and see what first-hand teaching would be like in a different country.

The first country he landed in was Japan, where he had secured himself a one-year contract at a private school in Tokyo. Having never traveled to Asia before, Japan was a whole new world to Yogesh; it had a whole new language, culture and lifestyle that he had to quickly adapt to. And that’s how he met Amaya. Amaya was a co-worker of his who was assigned to be his English-speaking mentor throughout the year. The two of them grew close throughout that year, and they eventually started dating near the end of his contract. It was almost as if an untold benefit of the job was that he would later fall in love with his mentor. Either way, when his contract ended Amaya had told him that she wanted to finish her schooling in Tokyo; and that he should continue his travels in faith that one day they would meet again.

That ended up being exactly what happened. Yogesh Patel Santa Cruz went on to teach in Korea, Switzerland, Chile, Argentina and Brazil. And when he was in Argentina, Amaya surprised him with a visit and said he wished to one day build a family with him in the United States.

Now, the two of them have been married for fifteen years, and are raising a family in Trenton, New Jersey. They have two younger children, a seventh grade boy named Ken and a girl name Sunny, who is in the second grade. Both kids have excellent vocabulary and English skills, just like their parents.