In 2019, the beginning of our college careers, is when it all started. Joseph and Halley both attended Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, where Halley studied Secondary Education, Social Science, and History. Joseph studied Mechanical Engineering. Halley was an athlete and Joseph was, well, a nerd. Joseph and Halley came to eventually have one thing in common, and that was their close friend Mary. Our first interaction was at a random meal freshman year when Halley decided to sit with Mary, who decided that she was going to sit with Joseph and his friends.

It wouldn’t be until the 2021-2022 school year, our junior year, that we would cross paths, again, and remember it. It was a passing moment on the front porch of Halley’s college house on move-in day. Joseph was wearing a K-State sweatshirt, to which Halley commented on it. To this day, we both look back at that moment as a sort of “aha” moment. By the end of the school year, Joseph had landed himself an internship with a company that allowed him to stay in Atchison over the summer and work remotely. Halley was also staying in Atchison to work at the local sport bar, Willies, to make some extra money before the next softball season. To make some extra money on the side, Joseph worked the opening shift for the school gym as well as helped an engineering professor around his house, Tuesday and Thursday evenings.

Joseph and Halley would become familiar with each other in the early hours of the morning at the gym and would even sometimes have a light conversation. We would come across each other again at Willies on those Tuesday and Thursday evenings after Joseph was done helping out his professor. During that summer, there would be many humorous events that would follow us around, like Joseph’s first attempts at cooking a pork butt, Halley accidentally getting Joseph way too drunk on his birthday, and many O’Malley’s visits watching people fall down the stairs. The two oblivious idiots would continue to spend hours and hours with each other each week until November 12th, 2022 when they would make it official.

Since then these two have seen each other through long finals weeks, many softball games (played and announced), a graduation, and both starting new jobs. We are both excited to begin this new chapter in our lives with all of our closest friends and family by our side.

Joseph & Halley