AUSTIN: Going into the Fall of 2022, I was starting a new job and was excited to continue to dive into young adult life. I heard that OU's FOCUS team was getting two new girls, and I was honestly just excited to have some more people around in my stage of life. Once Tori and Bailey arrived, my friend/roommate Patrick and I decided to have them over to dinner to welcome them: thus was born the "Powerhouse" friend group. Over the course of the school year, the four of us were constantly hanging out. In November, Tori and I sat (well, stood) next to each other for the OU/OSU football game (affectionately known as "Bedlam") - that was my first moment of "oh, I'm kinda enjoying the fact that our shoulders are touching right now, wonder what that's about". I mostly compartmentalized that thought until about January, where more hangouts led to more wondering and more thoughts. More and more, I found myself wanting to hangout with Tori. To be honest, it was a slow burn: more hangouts leading to more friendship leading to wanting more hangouts leading to wanting to be closer...friends? Come the end of January, I was pretty sure the thoughts I was having weren't just thoughts. Each group hangout, I found myself gravitating towards wherever Tori was. Originally, my plan was to wait until her dating fast was over and then make my move. But then, I found out I was moving to Boston. In March, I had to tell Tori I was moving to Boston before I could tell her I liked her, which was an unfortunate sequence - but soon after, I decided to have a convo that basically went like this: "hey, I like you and I think this might be mutual...if it is, we should probably talk about what to do because I'm moving to Boston...if not, no worries because I'm moving to Boston". It was mutual (SCORE!) and long story short, we waited out the majority of the dating fast that was left, then went on a few dates, then dated for two weeks in person, then pulled off long distance for a year. The rest is history (: TORI: In May of 2022, I started a new job as a FOCUS missionary, where I was sent to serve at the University of Oklahoma. Part of the guidelines for this new job included being on a dating fast (aka no dating) for my first year; but no big deal - my life had been a dating fast up to that point :) Anywho, the Lord was kind in sending me a great group of core friends in Norman, including my two teammates Bailey and Patrick, as well as one of Patrick's roommates - some guy named Austin. The four of us (affectionately known as the "Powerhouse" crew) hung out every weekend. At some point, I started to notice thoughts like "I really like being around Austin" and "I sometimes want to pat him on the back"...interesting. I loved how social, kind, and considerate he was, and I was becoming more and more convinced we connected to God in similar ways. In the beginning, though, I mostly kept my interest to myself (remember that dating fast?). However, in January, I started to pick up on signs that perhaps Austin was also interested in me. The icing on the cake came in early March, on a day that Austin and I affectionately refer to as "the-biggest-middle-finger-to-the-dating-fast" day. We started off the day by going to mass together, then we stayed and prayed together, then we went to a coffee shop together since we both "had stuff to work on", then we went to lunch together (everyone's gotta eat anyways, right?... and so on an so forth. That day was definitely not dating-fast allowed...but I very much enjoyed being with him! But when I found out he was moving to Boston, I had one thought in my mind.... "he doesn't like me." I was distraught! He picked up on this, and soon after told me that he did indeed like me and had intentions of pursuing me. WOO! He asked me on a date the day my dating fast officially ended, and I was smitten. I loved getting to date one of my best friends! And flash forward a year later and I get to marry my best friend! What a joy! God is good!