If you ask Narissa: After finishing my first year of college, I wanted to meet more people and start dating. Going to a commuter school like CSULA was kind of isolated; I didn't get to bond that much with anyone like people dorming on campus would. I did end up joining the gaming club my first year though.

At the start of my second year, the club's Overwatch eSports team posted flyers looking for people to join the team. For those who don't know, Overwatch is a multiplayer first-person shooter game that came out in 2016. I had played it since it came out and it was my favorite game. I was ecstatic to join the team and applied, hoping that I would be chosen to join the team. To my surprise, the team captain, my friend Mel, actually chose me to be on the team. She also ended up choosing Jaime too, unbeknownst to me. I later came to learn that we were chosen from a pool of almost 30 people. Fate would have it that I'd meet my soulmate through Overwatch.

I was so happy, I knew that this would be a way to make new friends who shared my interests. I met my new teammates at our first practice together in-game and we introduced ourselves. After that first practice, I made the effort to ask our group chat if anyone wanted to play with me for fun outside of regular scheduled practice. There was one person who always wanted to play with me.

Jaime and I started to play Overwatch together, just the two of us. We had amazing synergy. I had so much fun playing with him, I started to play other video games with him too. I spent more and more time with him. We later started watching movies and listening to music together over Discord, the voice, video, and messaging app. One night, we even spent an all-nighter just talking to each other over the phone. It was literally 7 in the morning when we finally hung up. I knew that I had found my best friend in the whole world. He made me feel at home and like I could truly be my authentic self.

I ended up confessing that I liked him and asked him out. And the rest, as they say, is history.

If you ask Jaime: It was my second year of College at CSULA. I saw a post on facebook from the gaming club of CSULA about applying for the Overwatch Esports Team. I loved Overwatch, video games, and wanted to partake in competitive esports, so I wanted to join the team. So, I applied. The post mentioned there would be tryouts, so I eagerly awaited the tryouts only to find that there wasn’t any and that they had already selected their team members.

Fast forward to my LAST semester of College at CSULA (3 years later). I came across another post on Facebook about applying for the Overwatch Esports Team. I decided to give it another try and this time I was selected to join the team. I was very excited to play for the team and couldn't wait for the first team practice. Little did I know that joining the team would be the best thing that has ever happened to me. Before the first team practice, I joined one of the team members on playing Overwatch early before the practice, since I was so eager to play with them already. I remember hearing the most beautiful voice I have ever heard through my headset. Not only that but the way this voice spoke, it made me feel calm, heard, and like I was talking to someone I’ve known all my life. This beautiful voice came from none other than Narissa.

I started to talk to Narissa more and more, and wanted to play Overwatch with her all the time. We played Overwatch just by ourselves, aside from with the team, and would talk over discord. Before you know it, we were playing other video games together, watching movies, listening to music, and just talking to each other every day. This quickly turned to all day, as we took the next step on our journey and became boyfriend and girlfriend. We had hung out together before, but a bit after we made it official, quarantining due to COVID started, so we were not able to see each other for two months near the start of our relationship. It was agonizing not being able to see Narissa those months, but I was happy just knowing she was mine.

After 3 years of the best years of my life, I proposed to the girl who occupies my mind 24/7, the love of my life. Narissa is the most amazing, beautiful, sweetest, talented, funniest and kind hearted person I've ever met, and I will never understand how I became the luckiest guy in the world. To think that had I not minored in Real Estate and taken the extra courses, I might not have stayed an extra Fall Semester in College. Fate is a funny thing.