Finally!

Cory, born in Washington Sate in 1990, moved to Dripping Springs, Texas in 2003. He quickly found his friends based on common interests surrounding skateboarding and hacky-sacking. Kiley, born in 1996 in Austin, Texas lived in Dripping Springs, Texas until 2005 when her and her family moved just down the road to Wimberley, Texas. Playing sports and being homecoming queen (let's all say it together... she piqued in high school), she found friends in every niche of her small school. Some might say they just missed each other, but not them. If you ask Kiley how she and Cory met, she'll tell you that it truly was perfect timing. If we're all being honest with each other, if they met days, months, or years before they did AT BEST they would be friends. At worst... we don't want to talk about it. The fact of the matter is that they prioritized different things prior to meeting each other— Kiley thought she was going to be a Chief Marketing Officer for a Fortune 500 company by the time she hit 30, and Cory was truly living out his best 2000's-comedy-movie life and enjoying every day as it came. Shortly before they met, both of them were actively taking steps to change their lives to do things they never did before— Kiley was taking lighter semesters in college, and attending more parties than she ever had, and Cory was enrolling in Austin Coding Academy to start his career as a software engineer. Both working at a famous BBQ restaurant in Driftwood, Texas, they never knew each other directly, but knew of each other. One day, Kiley and Cory were sitting right next to each other as they rolled silverware with the rest of the serving crew that night. A coworker was complaining about her boyfriend to the whole table, and bashing him for every little thing he did when finally Cory piped up and said humorously, "Well Jesus, Linda, what do you want him to do?!" We all busted out laughing. Looking back at this, what a toxic relationship. But no one said a word. Only Cory hilariously (with a hint of frustration) pointed out how ridiculous this relationship was. Kiley knew right then that she wanted to hear more of his commentaries on life. From that point on, she and Cory started noticing they actually had a lot more shifts together than they ever realized. She would fill his workday with questions and made up scenarios for him to respond to. And in his way of impressing, he would answer them honestly and again, with slight frustration because for some reason that's Cory's signature humor that gets the Jones/Strauss family good. After learning more about Cory, Kiley knew that he was going to be in her life forever one way or another. One night, after a long shift, the serving staff went to grab drinks at a local bar after work. Kiley suggested to the group that we do a ski trip in the Swiss Alps for spring break. Everyone found this interesting and started talking about logistics. Cory then said, "No! We should go to Cozumel, Mexico for Spring Break!" And everyone raised their glass and agreed with a loud, "YEAH!" So, the group planned a trip to Cozumel. Cory and Kiley bought their tickets to Cozumel, and started telling other coworkers to buy their tickets. But once people found out that Cory and Kiley are the only ones that bought tickets, everyone opt-ed out of the trip. So Cory and Kiley were the only ones who went on the group trip to Mexico. We had a blast. Turns out everyone saw chemistry that we were denying for a long time. Ultimately, we owe our entire relationship to the friends that ditched us on the trip. Thank you. Once Cory and Kiley started dating, they started discovering who the each other was in their recent past and who they're working to become. At one point, Kiley said, "So Cory, you were a hooligan earlier this year, and I was an uptight, type A personality earlier this year... we would have HATED each other if we met then." And Cory simply responded with a nod. So anyways, that's how we met.