It has been just over a week since I started my online dating bet-losing experiment. When I first started this strange journey, I intended to write little pieces every day, keeping you all up-to-date on my expedition – but I have been out of luck and out of state, so please forgive me.
I signed up on the site last Saturday. I expected it to be a funny little experiment that would give me hilarious stories to share with my friends and family, which, so far, it has. But something else has happened, which is hard for me to talk about, but I am going to try.
This whole week I have been plagued with anxiety. Nothing major, I assure you, but this little something that has constantly been in the back of my mind.
After the first few hours of being on the website, I had been bombarded with over 20 messages, and it would not stop. I had a hard time keeping track of all these random guys who were trying to start comical conversations with me. Within a few days, my inbox doubled, tripled, and still continues to grow.
I was watching my inbox full of messages expand, and, at the same time, my fear of dating and relationship grow as well.
In this past week, I think I have learned more about myself than I have been able to discover in over five years. It turns out that throwing myself into the shark tank has proven to be quite the therapy session.
I’m sorry… I cannot go on talking about this, writing about it is harder than I thought it would be. Let’s chat about the funny stories, yeah?
One of the first messages I received was from a forty-seven year old man (I am twenty-two). This strange man wanted to let me know that I was a lovely young lady, and added that I probably already know that.
Thank you, man who is my mother’s age, I appreciate that reminder.
On my first IM chat session, this picture-less man (30 years old) said that he loves the way I live my life, and that we should probably go to a fireside or something together, then asked for my phone number.
Whoa! We have been chatting online for about 30 seconds, and you ask for my number? I apologize for not being that easy. Of course I said no thank you. Not only did this guy keep pushing for my digits, but he became frustrated with me for holding out my number. Hello, anger management!! Let’s not chat again, eh?
And the last one I’ll leave you with…
Randomly, an IM chat popped up on my computer screen. It was from a guy that looked like he had potential in not only being normal, but pretty cool. So we chatted. We joked. I laughed. Then he told me that the only reason he was online was to show his friend that there were still great girls out there. Apparently, his friend had some hard luck with the ladies as of late.
I told they guy that his friend could hang out with me and my friend whenever he’d like. He asked if he was invited. I said no. And then after some discussion, I said he could come, but we would ignore him for the first hour – it seemed like a great compromise. He finally told me to look up his friend, who had an account. I did. And surprise, surprise, the profile, while having different profile pictures, was almost verbatim. ...Really?
So I called him out on it (one of the bonuses of being online – you can be rude and straightforward) and he said that they were like brothers, and had a lot of similarities. I was over this weird story, so I said my computer was dying and had to go. But, of course, before I logged off, he asked for my number, inquiring if he could text me sometime. I told him to get my number he would have to go through a series of tests, which he was up for, and said he wanted to get started on the exams right away. Little did he know he had already failed the first test – being creepy enough to ask for my phone number on the first chat. Or second. Or third. Or fourth, for that matter.
Don’t let these creepy stories paint a bad picture of online dating. It has not been all bad. There are a few guys that seem great, and I will probably end up hanging out with them in the future.
I’ll keep you posted!
