Growing up as an only child, I was bored quite often. Therefore, into my teenage years, I used Tinder quite often. I have made a few solid friendships from the app, but I’ve also accumulated a good amount of strange or just bizarre stories in the past two years. So, here are a list of five notable Tinder experiences I have had.
Some of the names have been changed for confidentiality reasons.
The Guy Who Introduced Me To His Whole Family
Meeting new people is intimidating for nearly everybody, and I get significantly stressed out at the idea of meeting anybody’s family. Earlier in 2016, I met up with a guy named Greg. We got fast-food for about an hour and the night ended shortly after. A few days later, we brought up meeting up again that day. He told me some of his family was over, but it would be okay and I probably wouldn’t have to talk to them. So I went over to Greg’s, unaware that his entire family was there. Parents, step-parents, siblings, step-siblings, even out-of-town relatives. I don’t think there was a special occasion, but geez. Meeting a whole entire family, especially when you barely knew the person who was the reason you were there, was painfully uncomfortable.
The “Tell Me About Yourself?” Guy
We’ve all been asked ‘Tell me about yourself’ before. I met Chris a little over two years ago. We went to a forest preserve and sat down at a table to get to know each other. When he eventually asked me the question, I asked him to go first. This was the first hour we’ve ever been in each other’s presence, so I was expecting some of the basics. Something along the lines of “My favorite color is blue, I played tennis for a year, and I like dogs.” This was not the case. I was quite literally walked nearly step-by-step through his entire life from birth to present day, his parents’ backstory, and the conversation turned quite dark for a bit. I was speechless. We haven't hung out since.
The Guy Who Ditched Me For a Party
I met Brett on Tinder around late 2015. Our text conversations were very casual, typically falling out shortly after the “Not much, you?” After around a month of barely talking, we decided to meet up during Christmas break. He lived around forty-five/fifty minutes away from me but didn’t have access to a car, so I drove out to him. After hanging out for around an hour, Brett asked me if I would be down for him to invite some of his friends to hang out with us, and I said sure. Eventually he got a small group together and we met up with them. One of the guys Brett invited mentioned a party that was going to go on at a college about three hours away. At that point I was part of a figure skating team which had practice every Saturday, one I knew I could not miss due to being in the middle of the competition season. I told them I couldn’t go and Brett basically gave me the ‘sorry, nothing I can do’ look and, after two hours into meeting, he was off to a college party three hours away.
The Guy Who Became My Best Friend
I initially met Max on Tinder around April of 2015. We exchanged snapchats and Facebooks and talked very briefly, but communication shortly fell out after that first day. One day in late July, I was at Steak ‘n Shake with two of my friends and noticed our server looked strikingly familiar. I had a hunch he was Max, but I was unsure. When I got the chance, I looked at his name tag and noticed it was him, but I didn’t say anything in case he didn’t remember me and it would make things awkward (he later told me he did the same as well). After my friends and I finished eating and we were about to head out, I took a snapchat of the receipt that stated Max’s name as our server and captioned it ‘Thank you’ to him. From that day we began to talk, started hanging out, and right now I consider him one of my closest friends.
The Guy I Fell In Love With
Nick and I initially met on Tinder earlier this year, the same day he was going back to U of I after break. Knowing that, I never thought we would ever cross paths again. Eventually, after a month of absence, we began talking more and made plans to meet up after the school year ended. From that first day, I felt something was different about him. From the beginning I could talk to him with such ease, we clicked so well and I was so intrigued by him. We would talk for hours in a Meijer parking lot because every place was closed and we were too nervous to go to each other’s houses yet. We continued to see each other as often as our schedules would allow, but soon we had to talk about an inevitable dilemma that was creeping up: college. With me beginning my freshman year at Marquette University and him continuing his junior year at U of I, we had to decide what to do. We could either go our separate ways when move-in day came or go for long-distance. After a few more weeks of uncertainty, everything just cemented itself and we knew what we wanted. I wanted to be with him, I wanted to do long-distance, and he felt the same. We became a couple in July and currently visit each other’s campuses every other week at the minimum.
Tinder has such a stigma to it, being “the hookup app.” And yeah, a lot of people are on there to hookup. But people may surprise you, and you never know who you may come across. Without a doubt, Nick is the most incredible guy I have ever met and I am beyond grateful for the circumstances that allowed us to meet, to fall in love with each other, and to be with one another.
He once said to me: “How we came to be is something I’ll always hold near and dear to my heart,” and it’s the same for me too.
