This Saturday night I decided to make the very personal decision to download and try Bumble. Now, Bumble is just the latest addition to the long list of dating apps that everyone has recently become obsessed with. Bumble, however, sets its self apart from the other dating apps like Tinder, by giving the girls the opportunity to make the first move. Girls and guys can still both say that they like each other by swiping right or not by swiping left, but the girls have to text their matches first. Pretty cool, if you ask me. But, to be honest, I was hesitant to download the app, even if it was “just for research.” I normally am very awkward and not very suave when it comes to talking to strangers, especially males. Despite this fact, one might think that these dating apps would be right up my ally because you aren’t technically talking to someone in person and you most likely will never see those people, ever. But when I say I was nervous I was heart pounding, cold sweating nervous. I even had to leave the safe cocoon of my bed and run down the hall to my friend’s room and have her type the first message to a strapping young fellow named Cam.

Now I have to admit, the fact that Cam, a Canadian hockey player at a college in Boston, found my profile picture somewhat attractive and swiped right made me feel pretty dang good (those filters on my prof pic did wonders). I was so flattered, in fact, that I had no idea what to say to start the conversation in the fear that if I was too forward or too weird that he would not respond and as a result, my Bumble reputation would be slandered forever. So alas, I had my friend do it and she, as the dating app savant in my life, beautifully wrote this opening line, “Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?” To this Cam, as the good sport that he was, responded, “No, but did it hurt when I fell for you?” At that very charming response, I was hooked. I decided that Cam was a good guy and continued to talk with him about absolutely nothing, until I fell asleep.

My one take away from Bumble was that regardless of how soul crushingly scary it is to talk to complete strangers, it is also just as fun. I thoroughly enjoyed talking to Cam and putting myself out there for a little while. Now I have zero interest in ever meeting him or probably ever talking to him again because I would most likely combust, but I did learn a valuable lesson about myself. I learned that there is nothing scary about being yourself. After I moved on from the embarrassing pick up lines and the causal chatty remarks, I was actually able to hold a normal grown up conversation, by simply talking the way I normally do. Even though I deleted the app because the constant notifications were getting annoying, I will take what I learned and maybe use them in the real world, with an actual human being, face to face. But only after I am six shots deep or so.