I had the brilliant idea to download Tinder during the first semester of my freshman year. I had no intention of ever doing so, but it was recommended to me by a few girls who told me that it was entertaining.

Oh, why not, I thought. I could use some entertainment. And for the first few days, I admittedly found it very entertaining. I spent up to 20 minutes at a time swiping right and left and having a few random conversations. The conversations usually ended when one of us just stopped answering or when the guy would mention meeting up in person. I had no intention to ever do that. Stranger danger, you know?

But after a while, it was no longer entertaining, and I stopped using Tinder. I only went on it when I was ever bored and had nothing better to do. However, I never deleted it. This turned out to be a big mistake.

One day, I was sitting on a bus with my friend Sara on the way home from a swim meet, and she asked if I had a Tinder.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Can I go on it?” she asked.

“Sure, I don’t care. Have fun,” I said. I handed her my phone and let her mess around with my Tinder. She struck up some ridiculous conversations with guys that I will never see and then showed them to me. They were outrageous, but I thought nothing of any of them.

The following day, I was at Sara’s house eating dinner, and I told her that one of the guys she was messaging wanted to meet up with me at Collegetown Bagels, as he had expressed this right before I got to her house.

This turned out to be a huge mistake. She thought that I should go. I said no way. Long story short, she stole my phone and accepted the date for me.

Suffice it to say, I was not happy at all. This was a nightmare. How was I supposed to randomly meet up with a boy who I had never met before? What if he was a serial killer? The idea of meeting a random stranger from the internet was incredibly unappealing.

The next day came, and I still did not want to go at all. I just wanted to not show up (d*ck move, I know, but I really was not feeling it). However, my friend Miria showed up at my door right after I got out of the shower, and tried to get me pumped up and excited to go. I was neither of those things.

I reluctantly went outside to meet Sara, who was driving me to this arranged date. I was absolutely terrified and thought I was going to throw up.

I was dropped off at CTB, and I glumly got out of the car and went inside. I bought myself a bagel and sat down. After five minutes of anxiety, my date got there and sat down with me.

At first, he paid no attention to me and was on his phone, which was annoying since I did not want to be there in the first place. The least he could do was pay attention to me. However, he apologized for looking at his phone and then began talking. He probably did about 90% of the talking.

While this was going on, Miria and Sara came in and walked to the back of the restaurant. I stared them down as they went by.

After I finished eating, we went for a walk, where he talked about why he supported Trump (disgusting), and we came across one of his old teachers, and they hugged and chatted, which was super awkward. We walked until I had to leave, then I went into Sara’s car, where she had pulled up next to us, and didn’t look back.

Overall, I wouldn’t say I had fun, but it could definitely have been a lot worse. The guy periodically texted me after that and wanted to get together again. I’m not really sure why, considering I barely spoke. I considered it, but then decided I wasn’t feeling it. Eventually, he got the message and stopped contacting me.

Would I go on another Tinder date? Hell no. Do I regret going on this one? No. I now can say that I’ve done it and never do it again, plus I have a story to tell people. Sara said that I need to do a better job at talking to boys, and I suppose she's right.

I would personally rather not meet them through Tinder, but I do know people who have met their significant others through Tinder. If you want to give it a go, have fun with it.