AMAYA: I was just very optimistic. I definitely joined Love Island because I was ready to be dating someone. So, after every failed connection, I was like, “Damn, am I going to find my person?” ...

I never heard a second of it. On my end, a not-particularly-quiet window air conditioner unit was blasting cool air into my room about six feet away from the Switch 2.

"So I'm in Memphis training, training, training. Six months came. Seven months came, nothing. I was having issues at home, I was discouraged. I felt like a failure. I felt like I was ready to quit.

The only thing that would end my name duality was a legal name change. I knew I would take my husband's last name When my husband and I got engaged, I was 100% ready to take his name.

I had stacks of books near my bed, a county government temp job in a downtown L.A. skyscraper and a stream of notifications from a dating app lighting up my apartment at odd hours of the night.