I first saw Kainoa during our sophomore year at a track meet at the Podium in Spokane! I was there to cheer on a friend and remember seeing him about to race and I was like "Dang that guy is so hot", but I felt like he was out of my league, so for the next year he was a lot of fun to look at, but nothing came of it! The fall of our junior year, we had a statistics class together and had a couple fun conversations about the joy of college roommates. That was the extent of our relationship because he believed I was dating the kid I walked into class with everyday (classic Christian university moment). The next spring, we got our class schedules and as we started to show up to our first couple days of classes we figured out that 4 out of our five classes were together, and about the third day Kainoa asked if we could start doing homework together. I was excited, but I also felt like his focus was really on the homework. Our homework nights stayed consistent with working on school work for hours and having small conversations here and there. However after the first week, I realized how amazing he was at quoting videos and movies and from there we spent a lot more time laughing and creating a movie list together of ones we had to watch together. Two weeks in he began to come over on nights that we didn't have school work or after he got in late from a track meet and I was starting to wonder if the feelings that were growing were mutual. I then asked one of our mutual friends (Max Arno) to start poking around and seeing what he was feeling. On the night I asked Max, I decided I couldn't wait and I would take matters into my own hand. I started a conversation about spending all this time together and what he thought of it, and he very quickly and confidently stated that he was spending all this time with me because he had feelings for me, I quickly responded with having mutual feelings. I am not even joking, when I tell you that Kainoa shouted "YES!" while pumping his fist in the air! We then planned our first date where we went rollerblading, and on that first date we made it official! In the last 3 years, Kainoa has truly been an answered prayer from God. He is beyond patient and loving. He is the man to open up my car door three years in. He takes care of my heart in ways I didn't know possible. He is a faithful servant to God and I stand in awe and wonder in all the ways he gives his heart to Him. I can't wait to continue to know what it is like to be loved by him and that God gave me the gift of loving him for the rest of our days.

Our story begins at Whitworth University in Hawthorne Hall in Probability and statistics class. Alyssa sat right behind me, next to a track friend of mine so we were acquainted that way. Our first real conversation was about our frustrations with some roommates, and how it always felt like it was “our turn” to clean the house or take out the trash. The following semester, Alyssa and I shared ⅘ of our classes together, and I wanted to develop some better study/ homework habits, and I figured that the smart (and beautiful) girl from my stats class could help me do that. So, I asked Alyssa to study together, and from then on, we spent the majority of our time together. We went to the same classes, studied at the same times, the only thing we did separately was work, for her, and track for me. After about a month of doing homework, having late night talks, and hanging out, I finally asked Alyssa out on a real date. Not long after, we made our relationship official and dating has been an incredible journey; we spent summers together, met each other’s families, travelled to and from the Boise area more times than we can count, travelled to Hawai’i on a study abroad trip, and finally, capped our dating journey with an engagement ring on August 16th, 2025. So far, engagement has been amazing and I cannot wait to begin our marriage together. Here’s to a life full of love, joy, and glory to our amazing God.