My journey with a little dating app called Tinder has been a long and mostly unrewarding one. Filled with fuckboys, nice boys, creepy boys, and worst of all, fuckboys disguised as nice boys. I constantly felt bad for using Tinder. Feeling like I was a lonely loser for even having an account, even though I knew several people who used it and even met their significant others on it. But on the other hand, I'm a hopeless romantic and felt that if Tinder would help me find the true love, then so be it. Needless to say, I was at war with myself.
During this war though, I got a myriad number of new Snapchat contacts, hooked up with a few duds, and went on two underwhelming dates. Part of me was hopeless, thinking that maybe all I would ever get was a meaningless hookup, and another part of me was optimistic, thinking that if I didn't give up, I would eventually find the perfect match.
Then it happened.
It was late May and I had just completed my first year of college, which was a lot of fun but a roller coaster of a year none the less, so I decided I would chill and not focus on boys during the Summer. Then, of course, I started swiping again. Being back home, I encountered boys I went to high school with, and I died a little. But I was bored and looking for love so I continued to swipe, swipe, swipe until I matched with a cute, sweet, really nerdy, film major. He was totally my type. And apparently I was his because he messaged me right away. We started flirting and I started noticing that he was looking for the same thing I was: an actual relationship. He asks me to meet up with him. I actually wanted too, but was too afraid to go out on a Tinder date at home and have to run it by my parents.
So I stopped talking to him.
The boy kept trying to snap me but I wouldn't really answer. I was also afraid that he was just another creep from Tinder. So, we had something of a falling out. I learned later that he was devastated when I stopped talking to him, and I wish I hadn't. But hey, every love story needs a little depth.
After talking to a couple other Tinder guys and having it go nowhere, I started to feel alone and more pessimistic than ever. I was starting to think that maybe I would never meet a boy who legitimately cared about me and actually wanted to be my boyfriend, not just hook up with me.
Then my friend and I went to the beach together.
I took a selfie and posted it on my Snapchat story. I didn't think much of it, really, I just posted it and went along with the rest of my beach day. Then, just as my friend and I are about to head home, I get a Snapchat that boy from Tinder I stopped talking to saying:
"Hey Annie, I know you're not really talking to me anymore but I must say you look absolutely stunning."
And the rest was history. We started talking again and this time I realized that he was actually the guy I had been looking for all along. From actually talking to him, I saw the kind, sensitive soul that he was, I could tell that he wanted to take me out and treat me with respect and dignity, just like a princess. I worked up the courage to talk to my parents about meeting a guy from Tinder and they were very supportive.
The boy and I go out on a date and he's just as lovely in person as he is in texts. We go out again and again. He asks me to be his girlfriend. I say yes.
So, after almost a year of swiping left and swiping right, I finally find the perfect match. All the turmoil Tinder caused me is suddenly worth it. Because without it I wouldn't have found the man I love and who loves me for me.
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