Ms. Shealy, 35, has a bachelor’s degree in international affairs and fine art from George Washington University and two master’s degrees — one in Arabic and Islamic and Middle Eastern studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and another from the University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism. She is now a senior producer at the studios.
Mr. Glickstein, 35, has a bachelor’s in anthropology from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn. He is the director of communications for the WateReuse Association, a trade group in Alexandria, Va., dedicated to water recycling.
By March 2020, Ms. Shealy was dating only Mr. Glickstein, but as she was planning an extensive international trip, for both pleasure and work, she suggested that they might want to date other people. The coronavirus pandemic, however, forced her to cut the trip short. Soon, she formed a pod with Mr. Glickstein (and her roommate).
In July, they found an apartment together in Oakland. But, having never lived with a boyfriend before, Ms. Shealy panicked the night before they moved in. “Ben had this gentle way with me that made me able to move forward with him,” Ms. Shealy said.
Mr. Glickstein proposed on a hike at the Point Reyes National Seashore, a nature preserve in Marin County, Calif., on Valentine’s Day weekend in 2022. Ms. Shealy had previously expressed reservations about getting married, saying she was afraid of feeling trapped. He soothed those fears by telling her that with them together, she would feel freer than ever.
