Our story began on a cold, rainy December evening in 2019, when our mutual friends set us up on a blind date at Pine Street Market. Even though we both grew up in Portland—a city where the Asian community is pretty small—we had never crossed paths before. Janie was running late after circling downtown trying to find parking, but made sure to text Austin so he wouldn’t think she was standing him up. When she finally arrived, her first thought was, “Tall Asian guy with a nice smile... not bad.” Then she noticed the unibrow and the nose hair. Austin, on the other hand, immediately thought, “She’s cute, dressed well... glasses? Oh, she’s blind—how fitting for a blind date.” We laughed and talked for hours. However, after a couple of months of getting to know each other, Janie decided to focus on her studies and intentionally stepped back from getting to know Austin further. She was in a season where school and her goals had to come first, so she let him go before anything really began. That could have been the end of it—until finals week at Portland State. We were both students there. Out of nowhere, Austin sent Janie a text asking if she had a calculator he could borrow. That one simple text opened the door to conversations that never really stopped. From that point on, we found ourselves constantly talking, laughing, and getting to know each other in a deeper way. About a year later, Austin officially asked Janie to be his girlfriend. From there, our lives naturally intertwined—meeting each other’s families, building memories, and celebrating milestones together, like Austin’s graduation from nursing school and Janie getting accepted into occupational therapy school. Every step of the way, we supported one another, learned how to communicate, and continued growing closer as partners and best friends. On December 17, 2023, we were celebrating our fourth anniversary with dinner at Jaken. After dinner, we went to “pick up” Austin’s sister, Ashley, from an event she was decorating. She asked Austin to go upstairs to grab some “heavy things,” and a few minutes later, he texted both of us saying he was lost. Janie followed Ashley upstairs to help find him. What she didn’t know was that she was walking straight into the proposal. When we turned the corner, Austin was down on one knee. Janie immediately burst into tears—and through all the sobbing, she said yes. From a blind date to a borrowed calculator, every twist in our story brought us closer to the life we’re now building together.