It was freshman year of college. A small group of newly acquainted friends from my college fellowship, DCF, were gathered - just chillin’. The door suddenly opens and in walks a new face. My first thought was “whoa, that dude’s pants are waay too tight”. After a quick introduction, I learned his name was Harry. After a couple pleasantries, the guy with the tight pants and I did not talk much more that night. Soon thereafter, Harry started coming out to DCF events regularly. He actually forgot my name the next few times we met (thanks Harry). While flyering for an event, he slyly asked for everyone’s phone numbers, but would only continue texting me. Soon, he asked me to workout every Thursday at 9AM and to go for mid-day boba runs. I—of course—tried to drag Janae (my college roommate) to the things he invited me to so it would not feel so “date-y”. After a while, our hang outs came to feel more routine and any suspicions I had of him liking me slowly faded. After one fateful day of running together, my hair askew, sweat drops on my forehead, wearing my high school gym shirt, Harry randomly threw out “I was wondering if you wanted to go on a date with me?” Taken by complete surprise, I nervously smiled (because my body didn’t know how to react) and let out an “umm” for what felt like eternity. I actually never even said yes. I only managed to respond with a “where?” We ended up getting boba together and talked for 4 hours. It was easy, effortless, and natural. Fast forward to summer, I decided to friend zone him (sorry Harry). Individually, we both grew tremendously spiritually in the season that followed. As we both grew closer to God, I witnessed our conversations deepen, his generosity grow, and his love for leading people come to fruition. I soon thought to myself “oh no what if I missed my chance?!” Luckily for me, he never stopped liking me. WOOHOO! Soon thereafter, over macarons and a pretty bridge, he asked me out (again). & the rest is history (:

It all started with exercise. Yes, you heard me, exercise. I started to get to know Carmen after she (hesitantly) agreed to go running with me on a weekly basis. Let me set the scene - it was freshman year of college and I had mistakenly gained 24 pounds in my first three months of college. I really was at the peak of my physical image. After a season of being distant from God in the first half of college, I decided after constant pursuit from a few people to go back to fellowship. In my first freshman event at Davis Christian Fellowship, I met Carmen. I was playing the guitar, she was sitting on the couch, and after a mild "hello" exchange, we had officially met. Little did I know that 6.5 years later, we would be married. After a few more events through DCF, I bravely asked her to go running with me. Smartly, this served a dual purpose. 1. It allowed me start losing the extra freshman weight, obviously this was the priority. 2. It gave me a chance to get to know Carmen better. After a few running sessions that were both physically challenging and relationally building, I decided that she would be receptive enough to me asking her on a date. So after an intense session of mostly walking and talking, Carmen and I were headed out of the gym. As we approached the bike rack, I was sweating more than a tough workout and my hardest engineering final combined. We did a nice, Christian side-hug and then I uttered the words, "I was wondering if you'd like to go on a date with me?" Then came the words, "Uh, where?" Then I said, "I'm not sure..." And she went, "Oh okay, I'll see you later!" and left! Truth be told, I had no idea where I wanted to take Carmen - all I knew is that I wanted to get to know her better. Thankfully, she said yes later over text, then years later again to spending the rest of her life with me. Every single time she's said yes, I still feel the same way I did years ago - so lucky and so grateful that a girl like her would say yes to me.