So, you might be thinking, what does the title of our story mean? Well, lets dive into it. (It comes from the phrase, "Oh, how the tables have turned")

Caren and Joel met in September of 2023. At this time Caren and Joel did not interact much, though she was roommates with his sister, Nadia, who became her best friend. Soon after, Nadia proposed that Caren should date her brother, but she immediately shot down the idea.

Nadia continued to mention it, but Caren consistently said no. So Joel's sister decided to tell him that Caren would never be interested in him and that he shouldn't consider her an option. So he basically disqualified her altogether. Nothing happened between the two during their first year at Millar, but that changed the following year. In October of 2024, Nadia had her wedding celebration in Hawkesbury Ontario, her hometown, and Caren was one of her bridesmaids. During this time, Caren stayed at the Lacroix house. Joel acted like himself (still weird...) during that week, so Caren got to know him a bit better and see him in an non-school environment. At this point neither parties had any interest in each other...

During one of the slower evenings that week, Caren, Nadia, and Jade (Joel's other sister) were hanging out and were talking about boys... Jade brought up that she had a single older brother, but Nadia immediately interjected that it was not an option because she had tried to have that conversation already and Caren had said no. Caren did not say anything about it but it did get her thinking. When she got home from that trip, these thoughts only increased. She realized that she was slowly developing a crush on Joel. She did not want to accept it but ended up telling a few girls during girl talk one night that she had a crush on Joel but was not exactly interested in dating him. That's when it all started...

Meanwhile, as Caren thought about it, she had some suspicions that Joel perhaps had a crush on her too. He didn't. She was reading into things... To be fair, he was hanging around her more without realizing it. So after many conversations, thinking, and praying, Caren decided to talk to Joel's sister-in-law Tamara about her little situation. Caren had a couple thoughts and clarifying questions to ask her about Joel before she could really let herself become too invested in him. She came into this conversation thinking that she would leave it crush-free. She was very wrong. That talk confirmed for Caren that she indeed had a major crush on Joel, and was very interested in dating him.

Caren thought she was dropping solid enough hints to Joel that she liked him, but Joel was completely oblivious to anything she was trying to do. So she asked Tamara to see if Alex (his brother) knew if Joel was interested in anyone, but Alex had no idea. So, he was sent on a mission to go and ask Joel if he was interested in anyone. A few miscommunications later, he spilled the beans and told Joel everything.

It took Joel approximately 16 hours and a lot of thinking but he decided to ask Caren out on an interrogative walk to see if anything could disqualify her as his wife. The walk lasted for just over 3 hours. He decided she was the one. After a couple more days of talking and getting to know each other, he asked her to be his girlfriend. 70 days later, he asked her to marry him and she said yes!!

After many miscommunications and long conversations, the couple are very happy to be together and are excited to make this next big step! And that is how the turns have tabled.