Maya grew up in Austin, TX, with her brother, Benja, and parents, Courtney and Jay. She was homeschooled, and she spent the majority of her preteen years reading Animorphs on her family's trampoline. After high school, she took a gap year, wherein she read a lot of books, worked as a lifeguard, and wrote essays and short stories. She then worked in Nanjing, China, as a kindergarten teacher. When she returned to Austin, she moved into a co-op, where she enjoyed communal living and a lot of tofu.

Maya recently completed degree in English at the University of Texas at Austin, and now she works as a teacher in an alternative elementary school. She loves biking, baking, and lingering at coffee shops longer than is appropriate.

Zak grew up in Arlington, VA with his sister, Kaiya, and parents, Randy and Kathi. He was homeschooled, he played Yu-Gi-Oh!, and he lived with three great dogs. Zak began attending high school, H-B Woodlawn, where he fell in love with theatre. He even went to James Madison University to study theatre. But he changed his mind! Zak became a teacher, first in Malaysia, and then back at H-B as a substitute. When he lost his job in the midst of Covid, he moved to Austin, TX without really knowing why.

It is warmer there, and Zak gets to eat plenty of donuts and tacos. He is a life-long biker, a spoken-word poet, and he likes making playlists of the new music he finds.

Six months after moving, Zak realized why he came to Austin. He met Maya! Sharing the past three years together has been joyful, and Zak is so excited to live the rest of his life with Maya.

Zak and Maya connected over Hinge (the dating app) because of a statement Zak had written about loving Harry Potter audiobooks. When Maya replied by name-dropping the audiobook narrator, both of them knew they needed to meet. Zak and Maya’s first date was at the Austin Central Library, where they realized that they had both been raised Unitarian Universalist, both been homeschooled, had both spent their early years in Northern Virginia, and were both working as teachers.

Maya’s brother, Benja, took Zak rock climbing for their second date, and Maya introduced Zak to her parents later that week. They welcomed him with spectacular warmth (and gentle teasing). It took three more months before Zak’s family got to meet Maya and attempt to introduce her to all the food Arlington has to offer.

About two years into their relationship Zak and Maya adopted a puppy, Uther. Maya proposed to Zak the following week, and Zak proposed to Maya two weeks later (this joint proposal was an idea from Kaiya).

Zak and Maya like road-tripping, music festivals, playing with their dog, running, biking, cooking, reading, throwing parties for friends and family, and listening to Harry Potter audiobooks together. Every night they tell each other where they saw the Big Mystery in their day, and every morning they say “good morning, I love you!”